If there is one thing Wall Street likes, it’s the next big thing. A few years ago, when the industry was knee-deep in over-the-counter derivatives reform, that thing was swap futures.

The hope was that these products, which bundle instruments such as an interest rate swap with a deliverable future to create a more standardised, easily tradable instrument, would provide a relief from the onerous collateral burdens and sparse liquidity that many feared would become the norm in the brave new world of OTC markets. The fact that they were futures should have allowed users to sidestep rules on electronic derivatives trading that were coming into force. They were, proponents claimed, an elegant solution to convoluted problems.