Three months ago, the oldest bank in the world took a very 21st-century financial instrument and produced something new in global finance. Italy’s Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472, arranged for interest rate swaps – a type of derivative used to insure against rate fluctuations – to be processed through a London clearing house.

Banks have thus been busy re-engineering their derivatives broking units into bigger operations capable of handling listed and OTC derivatives together. Rich Repetto, exchanges analyst at Sandler O’Neill, says: “The banks are reorganising because they see a convergence of the futures and OTC business, especially from a clearing and servicing perspective.”