Ice Clear Credit
Tariff volatility triggers record margin calls at global CCPs
Aggregate average VM call in Q2 eclipsed pandemic highs
Index CDS trading nearly doubles as tariffs spook market
Turnover ebbed in single-name contracts as iTraxx and CDX volumes climbed rapidly last week
Netting hurdles could decide the US Treasuries clearing race
Competing CCPs must resolve accounting and cross-margining obstacles to benefit from SEC mandate
DCOs show resilience beyond key default thresholds – CFTC
Reverse stress test reveals clearing houses remain resilient under low to moderate market shocks
Clearing members cry foul over restrictive FICC rule change
Draft interpreted as attempt to obstruct rival clearing houses entering US Treasuries market
Record rise in concentration at top CCPs leads to all-time high
Median top-five member open position concentration rises 2.4pp in Q4
LME had four-hour operational failure in Q4
First outage on record caused by connectivity issue at LMEmercury
IM surges at LCH following CDS users’ shift from ICEU
Figures for Q3 show 16% jump at Paris-based CDSClear
Clearing members sour further on cash for IM collateral
Sovereign bonds remain preferred choice at top CCPs in Q3
Concentration risk ticks up at large CCPs
Top five clearing members accounted for almost half IM and open positions in Q3
Final CDS volumes migrate from Ice Clear Europe
Majority of positions re-established at Ice Clear Credit, as transition overcomes hold-out fears
CME, DTCC lead CCPs on operational failures
Analysis of 15 clearing houses shows outages lasting 34 hours in the past year – highest figure since 2019
Mystery clearing member delays ICEU’s CDS transition
But Ice is confident open interest will be close to zero when service shuts down in October
Billions in index CDSs remain at ICEU as clearing shutdown looms
Osttra has migrated 77% of index OI, but the rest is mostly held by clients outside its network
Sovereign bonds top choice for IM collateral
Drive towards higher interest-earning assets strongest at CME and LCH among top CCPs
RepoClear’s default fund halves in Q1
Elevated initial margin allows LCH service to scale back second line of defence to lowest point on record
Ice Credit makes biggest IM call since early pandemic
Aggregate peak calls were 17% higher in Q1 than previous quarter across 25 clearing houses
CCPs shun central banks in liquidity buffers rejig
LCH, Ice US and CME lead the way towards commercial banks
Initial margin requirements for IR swaps hit record $325bn
CME, Eurex and LCH report aggregate 10% rise in month marred by most severe crisis since 2008
Ice Clear Credit worst-case liquidity scenario worsens by half
Estimated largest payment obligation at highest ever level in euros in Q4 2022
CCP ‘skin in the game’ still dwarfed by member contributions
Even as markets churned in 2022, clearing houses coughed up only 2% of funds at end-September – the same as the previous year