CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today announced that it set new monthly records for clearing interest rate swaps (IRS) and credit default swaps (CDS). For the month of November, the company cleared $61.9 billion in combined OTC IRS and CDS volume, a 36 percent increase over the previous record monthly total of $45.5 billion set in October 2011.
As of November 30, 2011, the company has cleared more than $153 billion in OTC IRS and CDS through its multi-asset class clearing solution since launch, including over $130 billion of buy side notional. Additionally, open interest stood at $115.7 billion in IRS and $15.9 billion in CDS.
The company also announced the strong performance of its newly launched OTC products, including Euro-denominated IRS which has cleared euro 27.6 billion since it launched on October 17, and the CDX High Yield Indices which have cleared $2.3 billion since they launched on November 7. CME Group further expanded its IRS offering today, with the launch of British Pound and Canadian dollar-denominated IRS.
“We are very pleased with the strong support we’re receiving from buy side firms solidifying our position as the leading OTC clearing service by U.S. customer volume,” said Laurent Paulhac, CME Group managing director, OTC Products & Services. “We continue to aggressively expand our product offering based on specific client demand. The success of our new IRS and CDS products validates our customer driven approach to building out our multi-asset class solution.” ”Goldman Sachs is pleased to partner with CME Group in order to serve our clients as both an execution counterparty and clearing member for CME’s OTC products,” said Michael Dawley, co-head of Global Derivative Clearing Services at Goldman Sachs. “CME’s recent increase in customer volume illustrates the buy side’s desire to leverage OTC clearing. Goldman Sachs is firmly committed to supporting our clients’ OTC derivatives clearing needs, and will continue to work with CME Group to build out its OTC clearing business.”
“RBS plc is pleased to have garnered the leadership role of the first bank approved by the CME as a direct clearing member for OTC derivatives,” said Henson Orser, head of USD Rates Sales. “We are very supportive of the early adopters that use the CME to reduce bilateral counterparty exposure, particularly in this environment of heightened credit uncertainty.”
