Futures
Ice to accept EUAs as collateral
Emissions certificates accepted to offset short EUA futures positions, subject to 14-day comment period
Shifting rates throw bond investors off balance
Dearth of bond liquidity forces some traders to offload positions – but, as ever, others are waiting to pounce
Eurex liquidity pool jumps 39% as required IM rises
Members of the IRS clearing unit saw the largest increase of required margin in Q2
CME preps April Eurodollar conversion
US exchange selects April 14, 2023 to flip open interest in heavily traded Libor contracts to SOFR
JSCC’s bond and IRS units hit by almost 200 breaches
Q2 volatility triggered some of the largest initial margin breaches ever reported by the CCP
Banks shock commodities by 1,000% in stress-test rethink
Energy price spikes force clearing firms to consider extreme or even ‘implausible’ scenarios
Goldman hoovers up $1.5bn of client margin in June
US bank bucks trend as top FCMs all cut required margin for futures and options trades
Bund volatility sparks uncertainty around futures delivery
Changing cheapest-to-deliver status catches some traders off guard despite Finanzagentur intervention
Growing use of ‘carte blanche’ keeps FCMs ‘awake at night’
Executing brokers want to speed up trade processing, but practice is deemed risky by clearers
FCM client margin for F&O hit all-time high in May
But concentration among top 10 broker-dealers continues to shrink
Client margin at Wedbush unit up 46% in April
Futures and options clearing unit saw largest monthly increase across all FCMs
Initial margin at Ice Europe up 15% over Q1
IM held against F&O positions hit all-time high, as number of margin breaches nudged higher
Crypto derivatives should be banks’ ‘gateway drug’ to spot
Improved spot market liquidity means cash-settled derivatives shouldn’t be the end goal, says co-founder
Exchange execs clash over LME nickel closure
Ice’s Williams says circuit breakers could have averted shutdown, but LME’s Combe defends ‘tough decision’
In the age of bitcoin, buy side braces for 24/7 risk management
Investors forced to rethink “nine to five” mentality, as crypto exchange FTX proposes auto-liquidation model
SA-CCR could spur move to FX futures
Impact of new capital rules on swaps pricing could see shift to the exchange-traded product, say panellists
BlackRock calls for blockchain to fix futures processing snags
Asset manager wants industry to move faster in adopting “single source of truth” model
FTX’s ‘easy-access’ clearing stokes fears over runaway risk
Crypto exchange will auto-liquidate underwater positions, which critics say could fuel a death spiral in prices
Client margin up 43% at Mizuho’s F&O in Q1
US unit of Japanese bank overtakes Credit Suisse, Barclays, UBS and Interactive Brokers
JP Morgan appoints new head of derivatives clearing
Richardson promoted to top job as Rustad takes leave of absence
Carbon fund increases returns by decreasing supply of permits
Europe’s emissions trading system could be a catalyst for the energy transition, but only if prices rise
Rebuilding the broken futures commission merchant paradigm
The futures commission merchant (FCM) model is broken. The $5.5 billion industry is in dire straits. Once considered a low-risk activity supported by initial margin and daily mark-to-market calls, clearing today is a capital-intensive and ‘returns…
Energy market split over emergency government support
German move to backstop margins with liquidity facility welcomed by energy producers – but others say it’s unnecessary
Ice Clear Europe issued $5.4bn VM call in Q4
Price volatility in energy markets behind the largest cash call on record by the CCP