BaFin eases clearing house restrictions

Clearing

An extraordinary, behind-the-scenes complaint made by Dresdner Bank and Deutsche Bank has resulted in the German regulator cutting to zero the amount of capital that banks are required to hold against transactions with swaps clearing counterparties, such as the SwapClear service run by the London Clearing House (LCH). The decision has been welcomed as "fantastic news" by sources at Dresdner, which had imposed a firm-wide ban on the use of SwapClear this summer to avoid possible punishment fr