Access denied: Hundreds of firms could be unable to use CCPs

Thousands of firms are likely to be caught by the over-the-counter clearing mandate – but banks offering client clearing services say they can only take on a limited number of customers. As things stand, those frozen out would be unable to trade. Joe Rennison reports

"It's like setting fire to a cafe full of elephants. There’s very little time, they’re not exactly nimble and they all need to get through the same door at once,” says Nicole Grootveld, chief operating officer at Cardano, a risk management and advisory service. It’s not the most conventional analogy – but there’s nothing conventional about the race to centrally clear over-the-counter derivatives, mandated by the Group of 20 (G-20) nations in September 2009 for an end-2012 deadline.

Grootveld’s