According to the report, it could in the long term lead to a change becoming necessary in the traditional role of the intermediaries. For example, they may choose to concentrate on the segments they consider most profitable. •  A further important effect is that price formation can be improved when all trading is centralised to one platform. This could make it easier for market players to find a balanced price. New information will have a rapid impact on prices with the aid of the new technology. This can in turn lead to a reduction in interest-rate differentials or spreads between purchase prices and selling prices. At the same time, the report points out the risks ensuing from electronic trading systems. One evident risk, which may seem trivial in a way, but in reality may have great significance, concerns the technology itself. It quite simply has to work, and do so even in situations where there is unrest on the market. Knowledge of the traditional methods of trading, such as telephone trading, will of course also decline over time. This means it will probably become increasingly difficult to trade using alternative methods in the event of system disturbances. Allow me therefore to emphasise the importance of the systems being reliable and of having functional emergency routines. Electronic trading systems will not necessarily lead to all of the benefits I recently mentioned.
Although the electronic platform being launched today will not be able to meet all of these, I still hope that it will prove to be the starting point for something new and contribute to an eagerly-awaited renaissance for Swedish fixed income trading. Good luck! BIS Review 37/2001  3