BlackRock, OTCX Partner to Bring OTC Derivatives Fully Online
BlackRock’s technology arm has struck a new deal with London-based fintech OTCX to drag one of the last voice-dominated corners of finance — over-the-counter derivatives trading — fully onto the screen.
The multi-year partnership will plug OTCX’s electronic marketplace directly into BlackRock’s Aladdin system, the portfolio and trading platform used by hundreds of the world’s asset managers and insurers. The integration will allow Aladdin users to request quotes, negotiate prices, execute, and complete post-trade steps for complex derivatives without ever picking up the phone.
The tie-up is the latest in a string of efforts to digitise what remains a fragmented and sluggish-moving market. Despite years of regulation and investment, much of the $700-trillion OTC derivatives world still depends on phone calls, chats, and spreadsheets to match trades.
Nicolas Koechlin, chief executive of OTCX, called the integration a turning point for purchase-side firms. “Our goal is to give market participants more choice, lower costs, and more efficient workflows in markets that have historically been complex and fragmented,” he said. “Together with BlackRock Aladdin, we are excited to accelerate the industry’s shift from manual voice trading to seamless digital execution.”
OTCX runs a UK-regulated multilateral trading facility that lets investment managers send electronic requests for quotes to banks on products such as interest-rate swaps, swaptions, and credit derivatives.
Founded in 2014, the company built its reputation on bridging the gap between traders’ chat-based habits and compliance-friendly electronic execution. It has gradually linked with portfolio systems like SimCorp Dimension and Charles River — and now, through Aladdin, gains access to one of the largest in global finance.
For BlackRock, the deal extends Aladdin’s network of connected venues beyond credit and rates markets. Over the past decade, Aladdin has built direct links with major fixed-income platforms including MarketAxess and Tradeweb, giving users without leaving the platform. Adding OTCX gives its clients another route into opaque derivatives markets that regulators have long wanted to view digitised.
The timing aligns with a broader industry clean-up. In 2024, the European Union and UK rolled out the EMIR Refit, tightening reporting standards and forcing derivatives to be tracked with ISO 20022 messaging. In the United States, the rewrite of swap-reporting rules imposed similar data-quality demands. Automated, auditable workflows like those promised through Aladdin-OTCX links make regulatory compliance simpler and cheaper for large purchase-side firms.
Technology vendors are racing to solve the post-trade side as well. In July, consultancy Delta Capita launched Elaris OTC — a blockchain-based platform built with Fragmos Chain — to match and reconcile lifecycle events automatically between trading counterparties.
Together, these moves suggest the long-promised electronification of OTC derivatives is gaining traction, not just on execution but through settlement and reporting. Still, market structure veterans say adoption will depend on whether dealers commit liquidity electronically rather than treating platforms as a backup to chat.
For now, the BlackRock-OTCX partnership offers a practical step. Aladdin users will be able to send “request-for-market” messages, receive dealer quotes in real time, execute trades, and send the data straight into compliance and risk systems. The experience mirrors what traders have had for years — but with the audit trail and automation regulators now expect in derivatives.
If it works, the deal could hasten the decline of the old-school phone trade and mark a quiet technological upgrade for one of the most still running on voice.
