Tag: LCH

LCH

LCH Adds Five Currencies to Swaps Clearing Suite

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Galen Stops

LCH has expanded its non-deliverable interest rate swaps offering to include five additional currencies. Market participants are now able to clear this product denominated in Brazilian real, Chilean peso, Colombian peso, Taiwan dollar and Thai baht.This builds on LCH’s existing non-deliverable interest rate swaps offering of Chinese yuan, Indian rupee and Korean won, launched in April 2018. LCH has cleared over $5.47 trillion of these currencies since going live.
Cameron Goh, global head of product, rates at LCH, says: “We’re delighted to be expanding our non-deliverable swaps offering to include these currencies. Our focus continues to be on providing maximum capital and margin efficiencies for the market, and this latest extension is another example of LCH partnering with our customers to extend our cleared product set.”

ESMA Grants Brexit Relief to UK-Based Clearing Houses

Posted on February 18, 2019 by Colin Lambert

Following a review of UK-based central counterparties (CCPs) and central securities depositories (CSDs), the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has announced that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, three CCPs established in the UK – LCH Limited, ICE Clear Europe Limited and LME Clear Limited – will be recognised to provide their services in the European Union.
ESMA says it has adopted these recognition decisions in order to limit the risk of disruption in central clearing and to avoid any negative impact on the financial stability of the EU.

TriOptima Compression Hit Record Levels in 2018

Posted on January 14, 2019 by Galen Stops

TriOptima, a provider of multilateral compression services for OTC markets, set a new record for its triReduce portfolio compression service in 2018, having compressed $250 trillion gross notional value of trades at LCH SwapClear.The firm says this record, which represents an annual increase of 31% in terms of notional value, was driven by a combination of increased participation of both dealers and their clients, increased trade submission to triReduce cycles and a wider adoption of the Trade Revision methodology, which improves compression efficiency by up to 50% by allowing a wider range of trade economics to be changed.“We are proud that another record compression year continues to help the industry achieve important capital and operational cost reductions,” says Peter Weibel, co-CEO at TriOptima.

LCH Touts First Cross-Currency Swap Compression

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Galen Stops

For the first time, trades registered in LCH’s SwapAgent service were successfully compressed in TriOptima’s multilateral USD/EUR cross-currency swap compression cycle. Using its triReduce compression service, €4.5 billion in notional of trades registered in SwapAgent were compressed. During the run, SwapAgent and non-SwapAgent trades were blended together to achieve better benefits from the compression.Compression is the process by which members can eliminate offsetting trades to reduce notional outstanding and the number of line items in a portfolio. Capital requirements such as those introduced under the Basel III leverage ratio have incentivised banks to reduce notional outstanding.

LCH Compresses $4.5 Billion in FX Outstandings

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Colin Lambert

LCH says that its ForexClear members have reduced their notional outstanding by $4.5 billion through the use of the service’s compression solution. Citi and Standard Chartered Bank are among the first participants to actively compress their trades at ForexClear.
Compression is the process by which clearing members and their clients can eliminate offsetting trades to reduce notional outstanding and the number of line items in a portfolio. Capital requirements such as those introduced under the Basel III leverage ratio have incentivised banks to reduce notional outstanding.

LCH Gets Japan FX Clearing Approval; Clears First Swaption

Posted on November 16, 2018 by Colin Lambert

LCH has received approval for an extension to its clearing licence from the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA). The licence extension was granted on 31 October 2018 and enables LCH’s ForexClear service to clear NDFs on behalf of banks and clients based in Japan.
This latest approval comes in addition to LCH’s existing licence to clear non-Yen OTC interest rate derivatives in Japan, which was granted by the FSA in 2016. Prior to LCH obtaining this latest licence, Japanese customers could only access ForexClear through international subsidiaries.

NDFs – The New Model Market?

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Galen Stops

Volumes in NDF markets have increased dramatically in recent years, but what is behind this accelerated activity and will it continue? More importantly, what role are the lessons learned from the G10 markets playing? Colin Lambert finds out.

The biggest growth story in foreign exchange over the past two years since the Bank for International Settlements’ 2016 Triennial Survey of FX Turnover has largely taken place in the shadows, for while spot volumes have largely plateaued, activity in the non-deliverable forward segment has grown exponentially. NDF average daily volumes, as reported by the UK and US foreign exchange committees, is 50% in the two years from April 2016 – a pace of growth no other product can match.

Birchall to Head LCH in Asia as Robinson Relocates to London

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Colin Lambert

Kate Birchall has been appointed head of Asia Pacific for LCH Ltd, effective 15 October 2018.
Based in Sydney, she will report to Martin Pluves, CEO, LCH Ltd, and will be responsible for LCH’s business in Asia Pacific, including the CCP’s existing OTC derivatives clearing operations in Sydney and Tokyo.
LCH says Asia Pacific is a region of strategic growth for the firm, which is directly licenced in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore. Members and clients from 12 APAC countries currently use LCH’s clearing services. ?

LCH Clears First SOFR Swaps

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Colin Lambert

LCH says it has cleared the first dollar interest rate swaps referencing the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), which was identified last year by a committee established by the Federal Reserve as representing the best alternative reference rate for benchmarking dollar interest rate derivatives.
SOFR was first published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in April 2018, LCH says Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were among the first participants to clear swaps using the new rate.

In the FICC of It

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Colin Lambert

In this week’s In the FICC of It podcast, Colin Lambert apologises to the English nation and Galen Stops talks about the needs of a millennial.
They also discuss the week’s news from the FX world including SGX launching futurised OTC products and LCH going live with deliverable FX options clearing, as well as deliberate upon how hedge fund performance is measured; US regulators’ attitudes to cryptocurrencies; and the latest blow to the desktop terminal industry. They close out with a quote from their favourite profession – the legal industry – which rather aptly reinforces something Colin Lambert has been saying for some years – and let’s face it, if he says enough at some stage a lawyer somewhere will have to agree, it’s the law of averages!
In case you missed some of the original coverage this week, you can catch up here:
SGX Launches “Futurised” OTC FX Product
LCH Goes Live with Deliverable FX Options Clearing
US Regulators Shift Attitudes Regarding Cryptocurrencies
Hedge Funds Suffer in June: BarclayHedge
And Finally…(subscription required)