Brokers lift the lid on swaps-to-futures confusion at Ice

The conversion of over-the-counter energy swaps to futures at Ice has been hailed as a seamless transition, but there is an alternative history – of last-minute decisions, U-turns and confusion that left some market participants scrambling to keep up. Joe Rennison reports

When energy traders at Ice went home for the weekend on October 12 last year, many were sitting on cleared positions in over-the-counter swaps. But by the time trading resumed on Monday, the swaps had become futures – insulated from new OTC rules that were originally scheduled to take effect that week, but subject to exactly the same margin requirements as the trades they replaced. It was, on the face of it, a pretty neat trick – and the exchange’s president and chief operating officer, Chuck