More than 120 buy-side firms signed with EurexOTC Clear, Eurex Clearing’s central counterparty service for Interest Rate Swap (IRS), by the end of 2013.
In addition, a total of 32 clearing members including all major global sell-side banks are connected.
Further clearing members are in the admission process, ensuring broad market support among sell- and buy-side firms for EurexOTC Clear.
“We are very pleased about the strong market interest to join our service well ahead of the clearing mandate in Europe. This proves Eurex Clearing’s appealing proposition to our customers, especially to buy-side firms across Europe. By joining EurexOTC Clear, sell-side banks and their clients are able to realise significant capital efficiencies and benefit from strong client asset protection services,” says Thomas Book, chief executive of Eurex Clearing.
While the start date of the clearing obligation for Interest Rate Swaps is not yet determined in Europe, onboarding activities for EurexOTC Clear already gain significant momentum among buy-side firms all across Europe. Among the buy-side firms that are in the connection process are asset managers, investment firms, hedge funds, pension funds as well as insurance companies and regional banks. Open interest has also started to build up at EurexOTC Clear. December was the busiest transaction month, increasing the outstanding gross notional value to more than EUR10bn.
With EurexOTC Clear for IRS, Eurex Clearing, a Deutsche Börse Group company, fully integrates the clearing and collateralization of OTC and listed derivatives in a single clearing house within one single legal framework across cleared products.