The firm says it is anticipating an upswing in demand from the introduction of electronic broking in parts of the interest rate derivatives markets this year.

The firm says it hopes to benefit from new US legislative requirements for the OTC trading of swaps through swap execution facilities. It hopes to meet the requirements as an SEF.

In a statement to investors this morning (July 14), Michael Spencer, chief executive of ICAP, said: “ICAP had a good start to the year with buoyant levels of trading activity in most financial markets during the first two months. The particularly volatile conditions in May produced active high frequency markets which benefited electronic broking and post trade processing and also boosted our interest rate derivatives, commodities and emerging markets businesses.”

He cautioned, however: “The very low levels of new corporate debt issuance and volatile conditions in equity markets produced more difficult conditions in credit and equity derivatives. Volumes slowed significantly in June as our customers’ and end investors’ risk appetites reduced.”

He concluded that the IDB “is well positioned to take advantage of the potential changes in the structure and regulation of the financial services industry which are now becoming clearer.

If the mixed pattern of business we have seen during the first quarter continues for the rest of financial year, then the current range of analysts’ forecasts for ICAP’s profit appears reasonable. This assumes that exchange rates remain around today’s levels for the remainder of the financial year.”

Tom Osborn +44 207 779 8361 tosborn@fow.com