The interest rate swaps market has long been a foundational pillar of global finance – supporting everything from liability-driven investment strategies to balance sheet risk management. In 2024, that role only intensified: risk-adjusted interest rate derivatives trading volume jumped by roughly 15.6% to $366 trillion, reflecting surging institutional activity and a renewed focus on interest rate risk. 

This growth has been matched by a steady rise in electronic trading volumes. U.S. swap execution facilities (SEFs) handled $22 trillion in total notional volume in  November 2024, according to the Futures Industry Association. But beneath these headline figures, one segment of the interest rate derivatives market remains tethered to outdated practices: the interdealer swaps market, where the majority of transactions still rely on voice trading. 

A Stubborn Market Ripe for Transformation

While electronic protocols now dominate the dealer-to-client space – with about 90% of customer inquiries now conducted electronically – the interdealer market has failed to modernize at the same pace. Trading environments remain operationally inefficient, cost-intensive and opaque. The most pervasive challenges include uncertainty of fill, manual post-trade processes and lack of scalability. For a market that underpins everything from sovereign debt hedging to institutional asset-liability management, this status quo isn’t just inefficient – it’s unsustainable. 

Previous efforts to modernize interdealer swaps workflows have focused heavily on central limit order book (CLOB) models. But this approach has consistently struggled to gain traction. CLOBs assume continuous liquidity and standardized trade sizing – a model that may work well in equities or dealer-to-client swaps, but often breaks down in the interdealer environment, where liquidity is episodic, trade sizes are variable and participants require more discretion. This has led to poor adoption and limited utility for dealers seeking scalable alternatives to voice broking.

Modern Infrastructure, Purpose-Built for Interdealer Flow

Enter RTX, a modern marketplace founded by industry veterans to directly address the inefficiencies holding back interdealer swaps. Over the past year, we’ve worked closely with market participants to build and optimize our platform, resulting in a new SEF purpose-built for the global interest rate swaps and options market. We focus on execution quality, operational simplicity and cost reduction – all within a structure tailored to institutional workflows. 

With decades of experience in interdealer broking and SEF operations, our team brings deep, practical knowledge of this market – from execution desk workflows to regulatory requirements. This firsthand perspective is evident throughout our platform.  

One example is our proprietary Request for Trade (RFT) protocol – a central feature that combines the structure and auditability of electronic execution with the discretion and flexibility historically associated with voice trading. Participants can engage with an order book without disclosing full market depth or pricing, preserving the strategic privacy essential in interdealer flows. Unlike indicative pricing models, RTX’s prices are firm, enhancing confidence and transparency at the point of execution. 

Completed trades are automatically reflected in dealers’ internal risk systems, streamlining post-trade efficiency and reducing operational overhead. This straight-through processing capability offers greater transparency into position management and significant efficiency gains compared to manual affirmation workflows still common in voice markets. 

Efficiency at Every Layer

Unlike generalized electronic solutions, the RTX team incorporates real-time client feedback directly into our development cycle, with new features rolled out in weeks, not months. This agile, client-informed approach ensures that the platform evolves in step with trader needs – whether that’s enhancing trade matching speed during periods of volatility or refining execution protocols for niche use cases.

RTX also delivers meaningful cost savings. With commission rates 30-50% lower than those of traditional voice brokers, we’re introducing a more economical model for interdealer execution – particularly for firms transacting at scale. Deployment is seamless via our web-based interface, designed for easy integration with existing infrastructure. 

In parallel, we’re helping reshape data access norms. While trade-level data is technically available via sources like the DTCC’s swap data repository, access is typically gated behind long-term, high-cost subscription contracts. RTX eliminates this barrier by offering real-time trade data to platform participants at no additional cost, enabling better-informed decision-making across the board. It’s a prime example of how our electronic model enables not just efficiency for individual brokers, but transparency and insight that makes the entire market more efficient. Everyone wins.

What’s Next: Scaling the Vision

In 2025, capital markets infrastructure is being reexamined through the lens of automation, auditability and adaptability. And as trading volumes grow and participant expectations evolve, the interdealer market demands infrastructure that reflects the sophistication of its participants. RTX was designed to meet that moment – bringing transparency and efficiency to one of the most opaque corners of the rates market, reducing cost and operational complexity and delivering speed and fairness by design. 

Today, RTX is live with 18 major dealers onboarded – a clear signal that that market is ready for a more efficient, transparent and purpose-built electronic alternative. In the near term, we plan to continue expanding our dealer network participants and enhancing core platform functionality based on ongoing client feedback. We also plan to extend our offering beyond U.S. dollar-denominated swaps into additional currencies and asset classes, providing broader market coverage as adoption scales.

It’s time to bring interdealer swaps trading into the 21st century – and we’re just getting started. 

Follow along on our journey, or reach out to our team to explore how RTX can support your trading workflows.