IntercontinentalExchange’s credit default swap (CDS) clearing houses surpassed $15 trillion in cumulative gross notional value and 400,000 transactions last week.
“In a little less than two years, ICE and its clearing members have made substantial progress toward increasing stability and transparency in the CDS market, and in reducing systemic risk globally,” says Scott Hill, senior vice president and CFO of ICE. “This is a significant achievement, and we’ll look to build on it in 2011 with the expansion of our products and services.”
ICE’s North American CDS clearing house, ICE Trust, crossed $9 trillion in gross notional cleared during the week, resulting in cumulative open interest of $542 billion. ICE Trust offers clearing for 37 indexes and 89 single-name contracts.
To date, ICE Trust has cleared $8.4 trillion in North American CDS indices (CDX) and $636 billion in single-name CDS. Through January 21, ICE Clear Europe cleared EUR3.8 trillion ($5.1 trillion) in iTraxx indices and EUR695 billion ($920 billion) in single-name instruments, resulting in EUR470 billion ($633 billion) of open interest. ICE Clear Europe offers clearing for 30 indexes and 101 single-name instruments.