LCH.Clearnet to Clear Spanish Government Bonds and Repos
LCH.Clearnet Group will begin clearing for Spanish government bonds and repos on 9 August 2010. It will be operated by LCH.Clearnet’s RepoClear service with trades settling at either Euroclear Bank or Clearstream Banking Luxembourg. In parallel, LCH.Clearnet is seeking to develop a complementary offering with a local settlement service.
For the first time, banks trading Spanish debt will be able to benefit from anonymous bond and repo trading, reduced counterparty risk and enhanced balance sheet netting. In line with RepoClear’s commitment to customer choice, the service will be able to accept both electronic and voice brokered trades from multiple trading sources.
John Burke, director and head of fixed income, LCH.Clearnet, said: “Demand for us to launch this service has been growing steadily and market participants are keen for us to extend the benefits of our multi-market clearing and settlement service to Spanish debt. Reduced counterparty risk, anonymity when trading and the significant efficiencies that balance sheet netting brings are just some of the benefits of this service. In time, clearing is also likely to contribute towards an increase in trading liquidity, as it has for other European government debt markets.”
Spanish debt is already eligible as collateral in LCH.Clearnet’s RepoClear €GC service. The new Spanish clearing service will operate alongside a Spanish €GC basket, thus allowing LCH.Clearnet to offer banks trading Spanish debt a standard settlement option or the opportunity to utilise tri-party settlement.