Ice Clear Europe
CCPs added cash to their liquidity buffers in Q1
CME increased cash reserves at central banks by 271% quarter-on-quarter
LME Clear stretched by CCP stress tests
Metals clearing house would exhaust prefunded resources under Esma’s default shock scenario
Top clearing houses bolstered default funds over Q1
NSCC reported its guaranty resources grew 231%
Swaps data: initial margin soars in Q1 2020
Model procyclicality drives wide variation in CCP IM hikes through Covid-19 volatility, writes Amir Khwaja of ClarusFT
Ice Europe’s CDS unit hit by almost 1,000 IM breaches in Q1
Peak breach was €100 million in size
Initial margin models of top CCPs slipped in Q1
Achieved coverage levels declined quarter-on-quarter
Higher margins would aid clearing stability – Ice Clear chief
Using volatility floors to aid “higher margins in peacetime” would have to be globally applied policy, warns Serafini
Don’t run CCP auctions by fear, study argues
Paper by BoE economist and co-authors backs ‘second-price’ auctions and limited penalties
Clearing banks feel pinch as rates turn negative
Negative returns on dollar deposits at Eurex, Ice and LCH spur talk of business model change
Bachelier – a strange new world for oil options
Model tuned to negative prices has implications for pricing, margining and delta hedging
EU ‘non-paper’ reveals new effort to delay CCP open access
Negotiations on CCP recovery and resolution could provide a route to postpone Mifid rule
CCPs built up liquidity buffers heading into 2020
LCH SA grew qualifying liquid resources 49% year on year
LCH suffered longest operational outages of top CCPs in 2019
London-based LCH LTD said core systems were down for almost seven hours in 2019
Entering 2020, most CCPs had bigger default funds than a year ago
Majority of back-up funds to handle member defaults saw more pre-funded resources flow in
Cleared sovereign CDS volumes build as pandemic spreads
South Korea and Italy CDS vols dominate Ice Clear Credit and Ice Clear Europe, respectively
Coronavirus rout revives attacks on futures margining
FCMs call for permanently higher margins following “unprecedented” number of breaches
iTraxx volumes spike amid market panic
Volumes of Ice-cleared index contracts more than four times higher than average
Oil futures and options see record volumes
Brent crude contract traded volumes hit 3.4 million on March 9
Oil price shock triggers big margin calls
Banks and exchanges worked through weekend in anticipation of oil collapse
Top five clearing members dominate CCPs
Thirteen of 25 clearing services surveyed have 50% or more open positions in hands of top five members
At CCPs, sovereign bonds are top IM collateral
Government debt makes up 48% of IM on average among top clearing houses
Inside top CCPs’ default funds
Central banks favoured by CCPs to hold default resources
Volume pop leads to higher IM at Ice Clear Europe CDS
Open interest in CDX contracts increased 78% in first nine months of 2019
People moves: CRO Landy takes helm at Brevan, SocGen names new Asia chief, Murray out at Bridgewater, and more
Latest job changes across the industry