BGC Expands Asia Offering with Yen Interest Rate Swaps

BGC Partners Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP) announced on Monday its launch of BGC Trader for yen interest rate Swaps (IRS). BGC, an international brokerage company specializing in financial and real estate markets, is now the first interdealer broker to launch a fully electronic platform for the yen IRS market, according to a press release issued by the company.

The announcement follows the company’s press release last Thursday announcing that it launched BGC Trader for the Indian rupee non-deliverable forward market (INR NDF) in November. Since the launch of their platform for INR NDF the company has “seen strong interest” across its SEF and off-SEF platforms.

These offerings build on BGC Trader, BGC’s proprietary, multi-asset, integrated voice and electronic price Execution platform. BGC claims to have leveraged this platform to become the first interdealer broker “providing rapid and efficient price discovery, order management and execution” for customers looking to access the yen IRS and INR NDF markets.

As part of the Yen IRS launch the company hired and trained a team of five traditional voice brokers, said Executive Managing Director and Global Head of e-Commerce Philip Norton. He added, “We will continue to increase our electronic offering in new product areas where there is client demand and stay at the forefront of electronic trade execution.”

These announcements (one peculiarly at least two months after the offering was launched) come at a time when BGC is aggressively pursuing the acquisition of GFI Group, a pursuit whose advances have so far gone largely unreciprocated. According to BGC, 43.3% of GFI’s stockholders currently favour accepting the tender-offer, and 70% of shares not owned by executives or directors represent positions in favour of the transaction as well. This illustrates the opposition harboured by GFI Group’s management to the deal—whereby they would ultimately lose control of the business.