Twenty-one market repo market participants drawn from both sides of the market, and using triparty collateral-management services supplied by Euroclear Bank, have agreed to join a new Collateral User Group established by the Brussels-based ICSD.
The Group will meet for the first time on 20 October, under the chairmanship of Grigorios Markouizos, Managing Director and European Head of Fixed Income Finance at Citigroup Global Markets. Euroclear Bank says his fellow members include front-office executives from broker-dealers, commercial banks, global custodians and fund managers in Europe.
“We applaud Euroclear Bank’s initiative to seek direct and formalised input from the market on how best to support the securities financing needs of its customers,” says Markouizos. “I am confident that a robust, two-way dialogue between the user community and Euroclear Bank professionals will increase the use of tri-party collateral management services, as we take a more active role in designing services to meet our needs.”
The purpose of the Group, says Euroclear, is to offer advice, ideas and market perspectives on the creation of new and/or improved tri-party collateral management services by Euroclear Bank. The User Group will meet several times each year and members will serve for a renewable two-year period.
“As a user-owned and user-governed infrastructure service provider, it is a natural extension to actively engage market professionals in the definition and formation of future services to optimise collateral management,” says Olivier Grimonpont, Director, Collateral Management and Securities Lending at Euroclear Bank. “We are delighted with the commitment of such high-calibre market professionals to work closely with us.”
Euroclear Bank says its average daily triparty collateral management outstandings have multiplied by a factor of five over the past five years. The latest record of average daily collateral outstanding is EUR 225 billion, having increased 40% since the beginning of the year.