According to Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters Corp. will be setting benchmarks for US swap trading rates during the ICAP investigation. Being performed by the International Swaps & Derivatives Association (ISDA), the regulator will be looking into whether or not the banks had manipulated the way ICAP set its benchmark rates.
Before the ISDA can move forward with the ICAP investigation, they must phase it out of its current roles within the$ 463 trillion dollar swaps market, which will begin this week.
Reasoning behind the ICAP investigation stems from evidence found that points toward the organization having rigged data used to determine the US swap rate to change prices at the expense of pensions and other institutional investors.
ISDA spokesman Steven Kennedy told Bloomberg that phasing ICAP out of its swap rate setting responsibilities is the first step toward utilizing best practices in the setting of benchmark rates. He went on the mention that the next step would be moving the whole process onto an automated system, which he says should begin sometime in the second quarter of this year.
Swap rate automation should help tame the manipulation of swaps, an important issue, as several scandals undermined the reliability of financial benchmarks just last year.