–Total Cleared Volume Surpasses $585 Billion;
–European CDS Clearing Operationally Ready
IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, today announced that The Royal Bank of Scotland plc (RBS) has been approved as a clearing member by the Board of ICE Trust(TM), the industry’s leading clearing house for credit default swaps (CDS). Operational as of May 18, RBS joins 10 initial clearing members of ICE Trust, and is the first new member since the clearing house launched in March.
Dirk Pruis, president of ICE Trust, said: "ICE Trust was designed as an open platform, with membership available to qualified market participants who meet the clearing house’s rigorous financial, operating and risk management criteria. We welcome RBS in our continued efforts to bring transparency and stability to the vital CDS markets, and we look forward to working with new dealer and buy-side participants."
ICE Trust is currently expanding its services to include buy-side clearing, which will provide for margin segregation and account portability to firms who are not direct clearing members. ICE Trust expects to make these enhanced risk protections available in the coming weeks.
For the week ended May 15, 2009, ICE Trust cleared $223 billion in notional value, Since launch, ICE Trust has cleared 6,599 transactions, totaling $586 billion of notional value, and resulting in open interest of $103 billion. During the last clearing cycle, ICE Trust added Series 8 and Series 9 CDX contracts, which accounted for approximately 76% of the week’s cleared volume.
Separately, ICE is working closely with the European CDS community to provide clearing service through ICE Clear Europe(R) for iTraxx and European single name reference entities by the July 2009 deadline agreed upon by CDS industry participants and the European Commission. Paul Swann, president of ICE Clear Europe, said: "We are working closely with applicant clearing firms and have completed several weeks of testing. We remain on track to clear iTraxx and European reference entities ahead of the Commission’s July deadline."
