Buy side fuels boom in single-name CDS clearing

Ice single-name CDS volumes double year on year following switch to semi-annual rolls

Upward trajectory: buy-side interest has fuelled the recent moves

Buy-side clearing of single-name credit default swaps (CDSs) is booming. Quarterly notional buy-side CDSs cleared by Ice Clear Credit have more than doubled, from $46.3 billion in the third quarter of 2016 to $108.4 billion in the first quarter of 2017.

Three banks say they have seen huge growth in clearing of the instruments among US clients.

“Last year, our client-facing single-name CDSs cleared versus our total percentage traded was just north of 40%. Year-to-date, we are at over 70%,” says