Global clearing house, LCH, on Tuesday announced that J.P. Morgan has gone live on CDSClear. The US Bank is the first to offer client clearing on the CDS clearing service.
Following J.P. Morgan going live, Swedish pension fund AMF is now clearing European, and US credit default Swaps through CDSClear. The fund is using J.P. Morgan Securities Plc as its clearing broker.
CDSClear
Part of LCH SA, CDSClear began offering client clearing in 2017, and it is the only European credit CCP which allows consumers to cross-margin European and US products. The addition of J.P. Morgan is the latest achievement for the company.
Commenting on the development, Frank Soussan, Global Head of CDSClear, LCH, said: “as the first US bank to offer CDSClear’s services to its clients, we’re delighted to welcome J.P. Morgan as our latest clearing broker. We’re focused on continuing to grow our reach and extending clearing broker access is an important part of this.”
LCH has clearinghouses around the world. It has operations in the UK, France, and the United States with additional offices in the Asia Pacific region. The company has a broad CDS coverage. It can clear 500+ single-name CDS and 124 index series.
Nick Rustad, Head of Global Clearing, J.P. Morgan, also added: “We are focused on providing clients with a choice of derivatives clearing solutions, and access via LCH. CDSClear will further open up a wide range of European and US credit derivatives to them. The associated cross-margining opportunity is also one of the core benefits that clearing has to offer.”
AMF is one of the largest leading pension companies in Sweden and one of the largest owners on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Stockholm. The company is a limited liability life insurance company. It is owned by the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.
Bengt Björkén, Head of Fixed Income AMF also commented on the development: ”Risk Management is a high priority for us and clearing offers us an efficient way of mitigating counterparty risk. CDSClear offers access to clearing a wide range of credit products and AMF are very pleased to be working with LCH and JP Morgan in this area.”
