Thomson TradeWeb has an option to widen its online services by launching the first online multi-dealer system for credit default swap (CDS) indices.

TradeWeb was acquired by Thomson Financial for $385 million in 2004. The company said it came to a deal with JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley which are expected to provide liquidity on the auction-based platform.

CDSs are derivative instruments that protect retail investors from the potential risks of the borrower’s default. CDS are becoming increasingly popular over the years.

“The key motivation for us and many of our clients is to improve the efficiency of post-trade processing. The elimination of a need to process trades manually is a huge efficiency gain,” said David Olsen, managing director at JPMorgan.

The CDS system will allow investors to simultaneously request price quotes from several dealers. It also offers automated back-office processing, which should cut the time and cost of trading.