- UOB successfully clears its first Interest Rate and FX Derivative trades as a direct member of LCH
- LCH extends its presence in Asia Pacific with 15 APAC direct members and over 170 clients
- Strong growth recorded across LCH SwapClear and ForexClear in APAC with 24% and 41% growth year-on-year in number of trades cleared respectively
LCH Group today announces that Singapore headquartered UOB (United Overseas Bank) has joined LCH SwapClear and LCH ForexClear as a direct clearing member, signifying another milestone for LCH in Asia Pacific. UOB is the first bank in Southeast Asia to join as a direct member of ForexClear. Furthermore, UOB’s joining marks the completion of all Singapore local banking groups joining as direct members of SwapClear. UOB will also be the first member globally to join both clearing services simultaneously.
Isabelle Girolami, CEO of LCH Ltd, said:
“We are delighted to welcome UOB as a member of our SwapClear and ForexClear services, which is testament to the vibrant banking landscape in APAC and more specifically, Singapore. APAC is a key strategic market and growth driver for LCH, and we are committed to enabling our members to benefit from economies of scale, along with margin, capital, and operational efficiencies that our services deliver. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with UOB as it looks to increase its clearing activity and benefit from LCH’s innovative solutions and diverse set of products available.”
Leslie Foo, Group Head of Global Markets, UOB, said:
“We are proud to be the first member globally to concurrently join LCH SwapClear and ForexClear. More importantly, we are the first ForexClear member in Southeast Asia as we seek to contribute to the growth of ASEAN. Our partnership with LCH will enable us to unlock further liquidity across multiple asset classes, particularly as regulations have placed greater financial resource requirements across our portfolios. We will also benefit from LCH’s world class risk management solutions and the capital and margin efficiencies that it will enable across our rates and FX clearing activity.”
Central clearing continues to be key focus for financial institutions in Asia Pacific as they look to benefit from robust risk management and capital efficiencies. Since 2021, SwapClear has recorded an 80% growth in APAC currencies or currency pairs notional cleared while ForexClear has recorded 14% growth in notional cleared. In Q4 2023, LSEG will also go live with its new NDF matching platform in Singapore, incorporating clearing into the FX trade execution process for the first time.
SwapClear provides access to the deepest liquidity in the OTC interest rate swap market and access to 95 percent of the “vanilla” IRS market. ForexClear is LCH’s solution for non-deliverable and deliverable FX, delivering unmatched capital, margin and operational efficiencies. Learn more here: LCH Group
