Following up on the introduction of a 10-year contract, the Chicago Board of Trade began trading a five-year interest-rate swap futures contract last month.
Like the 10-year vehicle, the new futures contract is being sold to institutional investors and other bond buyers to hedge credit and interest-rate exposure in the taxable market. The contract is derived from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association benchmark rates for U.S. dollar interest-rate swaps.
ABN AMRO Bank has been appointed market maker in the product to enhance liquidity.
In launching the new contract in June, CBOT said it would ask its board to approve a two-year swap futures contract. It also said it expects to begin selling options on the five- and 10-year swaps by the fall.
"The next step for the Board of Trade is to populate the swaps curve," said Bernard Dan, CBOT's executive vice president. He said the volume of trading in the 10-year swap futures has doubled to 4,000 contracts per day since ABN AMRO was introduced as market maker Feb. 1.