BlueGamma vs getting rates from your bank
Most borrowers start with the bank: an emailed curve, a rate table, a quote on request. That works for a one-off. Here is where it stops working, and what changes when you have a source of your own.
Your bank is the right place to execute a swap. The curve that checks it should come from somewhere else. BlueGamma gives you an independent mid, refreshed as markets move, so your model doesn’t wait on an email and every quote can be held against a number the bank didn’t send.
- Bank’s quote
- 4.05%
- Independent mid
- 3.85%
- What 20bp costs on $25m over 10 years
- about $400,000
Illustrative numbers; bar not to scale. Today’s value of paying 20bp a year on a $25m, 10-year swap.
- 100+financial institutions
- 60k+forward curves downloaded
- $100bn+of swaps priced and valued
At a glance
| Criterion | BlueGamma | Rates from your bank or adviser |
|---|---|---|
| Independence | Independent of every bank quoting you | From the bank on the other side of the trade |
| Speed | Whenever you need it, refreshed through the day | When someone replies |
| When inputs change | Re-run the model or the swap yourself | Ask again |
| Timestamp | Every curve carries its time and can be pulled again for any past date | Whatever time it was sent |
| Coverage | 30+ currencies, the full tenor range for each index, forward curves and history | What they choose to send |
| Cost | From $349 a month | No direct fee |
Why your own mid matters
A bank quote is the mid plus the bank’s spread. Without a mid of your own, the spread is invisible, and you can’t negotiate a number you can’t see. With one, you can talk to the bank about the spread itself.
What stays with the bank
- executing the swap, and the credit line behind it
- the documentation and the relationship
- their execution spread, which is fair to pay once you can see it
When asking the bank stops working
The model changes weekly
Sizing, sculpting or a new drawdown profile each mean a new curve. Waiting on an email each time slows the deal.
You need to show your working
An auditor or a committee asks where the rate came from and when. A timestamped curve answers that; a forwarded email doesn’t.
Several banks are quoting
Comparing offers fairly needs one reference curve to hold them all against.
Price the swap your bank just quoted
Enter the terms and see the mid, and the spread on top of it.
FAQs
No. We show the mid. A bank quote adds its execution spread and credit costs on top, so the gap between the two is what you are paying the bank.
Yes, to execute the swap. BlueGamma gives you your own numbers before and after, so you go into the conversation knowing the market.
Yes. Mark-to-market on your existing swaps uses the same timestamped curves, so a valuation can be reproduced for any past date.
Every curve is built from live market quotes, timestamped, and within 1bp of bank mids. The methodology page shows how, and we’re happy to reconcile against your own numbers in a trial.
Not investment or procurement advice.