While the sovereign debt crisis has perhaps come to the rescue of the credit default swap market in the past year, the CDS market, as a whole, has been critical to the success and profitability of wholesale cash and derivatives brokerage GFI.

While not one of the biggest brokers in the industry, GFI, which was founded in 1987, has carved out for itself an enviable niche in the CDS market. Fundamental to that has been its CreditMatch online trading platform.