A study published today by European Central Counterparty Limited (EuroCCP) has found it offers the lowest costs for clearing in Europe based on tariffs disclosed by all service providers, as required under the European Code of Conduct for Clearing and Settlement.
A comparative analysis conducted by EuroCCP over the past month found the average cost for clearing paid by financial firms was 26 eurocents, whereas EuroCCP’s anticipated average cost will be 2.9 eurocents per transaction. EuroCCP’s highest cost is 6 eurocents per transaction.
“This research further underscores EuroCCP’s value proposition,” says Diana Chan, chief executive officer of EuroCCP. “The trading platforms and exchanges who use EuroCCP will benefit by offering a more competitively priced combined trading and clearing environment. Financial firms who use EuroCCP will gain advantage from our ‘at cost’ business model that returns excess revenue to our customers and that continually drives down fees. EuroCCP clears for multiple trading venues so financial firms can not only net down the number of settlement obligations but also reduce the amount of collateral needed.”
The study found, based on publicly disclosed tariffs and information, that if EuroCCP, whose parent company is The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), were used to clear all trades in Europe today, the annual cost savings to financial institutions “would be nearly €350 million (277) in 2008.”
“MiFID and the Code of Conduct have been successful in unleashing competitive market forces and providing pricing transparency,” says Chan. “Since the European authorities announced their intention to allow new entrants for trading and clearing securities, established markets and central counterparties have slashed their fee structures-and more can be expected.”
The EuroCCP study was conducted over the past month, looking at pricing data made available by various central counterparties throughout Europe under the terms of the voluntary European Code of Conduct. The report describes the methodology used to calculate the average clearing cost per transaction for that organisation and for the average costs for all of Europe as well.
“While there’s disclosure of tariffs, there’s no uniform reporting method: different CCPs have different pricing schemes; almost no CCPs have a single constant fee for clearing all trades; CCPs may provide different functions; there may be different types of trades executed on an exchange, which incur different clearing fees; and there may be rebates on various fees, which are difficult to assess in importance”, says Neil Henderson, a managing director at EuroCCP who worked on the study. “We did not include in the study consideration of certain additional costs that financial firms incur, such as annual membership fees, connectivity fees and the opportunity costs for losing interest on cash margin held at a CCP. EuroCCP will not keep any of the interest earned on its participants’ cash margin payments, but most other CCPs in Europe do.”
A pdf copy of the study is available here.