Futures industry weighs need for new post-trade utility

Three large FCMs say standardising trade allocations could prevent a repeat of breaks seen during Covid volatility

An in-depth feature looking at the causes of the large number of trade breaks seen in futures markets during March 2020 can be found here.

Dealers are calling for the creation of a new utility to standardise the flow of order allocations from the buy side to futures commission merchants (FCMs) and clearing houses, to prevent a repeat of the congestion seen in futures and options markets last year, when coronavirus-induced volatility caused a huge spike in volumes, causing some trades to fail.