Derivs - Clearing and Exchanges

Commerzbank, Deutsche Börse and asset manager MEAG have made further progress in adopting blockchain technology in post-trade services.

LCH has become the first CCP to offer clearing of swaps benchmarked to the new European Central Bank euro short-term reference rate, €STR.

The London Metal Exchange will raise clearing and trading fees in January, marking its first such rise in five years.

LCH has expanded its deliverable FX offering, claiming to be the first central clearing counterparty to offer clearing on FX forwards.

Eurex has launched a new product suite in partnership with MSCI that enables investors to hedge their global dividend exposure.

CME Group has reported record quarterly derivatives volumes in the Asia Pacific region along with an upturn in global trading volumes.

Trading in Nasdaq’s Stockholm ESG equity index futures has surpassed 1m contracts in the year since their launch, as investors clamour for sustainable investment tools.

Eurex has launched total return futures on single equities as it seeks to expand its suite of equity index derivatives and capitalise on the impact of margin regulation in the over-the-counter (OTC) market.

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) has asked the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to not ban the sale of crypto-based derivatives to retail investors.

Intercontinental exchange and MSCI have expanded their relationship, with the index provider licensing ESG data to ICE for index construction. ICE will use the data to launch ESG versions of its fixed income indexes and will also launch various ESG related equities futures towards the end of this year.

Strength across the board, top positions in rates and FX and smart strategic decisions around the structure of its business mean that Bank of America Merrill Lynch is GlobalCapital’s Global Derivatives House of the Year for 2019. The bank also picked up the Interest Rate Derivatives House of the Year and FX Derivatives House of the Year awards.

Despite huge political headwinds and stiff competition, LCH still dominates European clearing, both in the volumes it processes and the innovation and new product development that it continuously commits to, making it GlobalCapital’s Clearing House of the Year.