The momentum and strength of such an underlying trend seem to be influenced to a large degree by technological advances, the pace of structural change in the corporate sector and economic policy reforms, such as in tax law or old-age pension provisions. Additional impetus is being provided by European monetary union.
Obviously, this market is still too new to have been tested in a widespread credit down-cycle. But so far, so good. The markets for more traditional derivatives, such as interest rate swaps and foreign exchange forwards and swaps, grew rapidly over the past several years.