IntercontinentalExchanges (ICE) credit default swap clearing house, ICE Clear Credit, has received regulatory approval to clear Markit iTraxx Europe CDS indices. It will begin clearing the contracts February 25.
ICE Clear Credit will be the first American clearing house to clear these indices, which include the Main, Crossover and HiVol indices, which fall under Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) clearing requirements. The clearing house will offer dealer-to-dealer and buy-side clearing.
“By adding the iTraxx Europe indices to the list of instruments we clear at ICE Clear Credit, we are helping our customers meet the requirements of the Dodd-Frank clearing rules and providing an opportunity for them to benefit from the capital efficiency of clearing all of their CDS indices in one regulatory jurisdiction,” says ICE Clear Credit President Christopher S. Edmonds.
ICE Clear Credit also received regulatory approval to clear European corporate single names; the service will be launched for the buy side later this year.
The clearing house offers clearing in nearly 400 North American and European CDS instruments.
(CG)