LCH.Clearnet says RepoClear, its fixed income CCP, achieved a new record monthly nominal volume in its repoclearing business in March of €8.5 trillion. This is equivalent to an increase of 43.4% over March 2005. LCH.Clearnet says growth occurred in all markets, with new record nominal sizes in each. Nominal volumes are up in the French sector (up 21.2%), Belgian (up 38.6%), Dutch (up 53.2%), Italian (up 183%) and German (up 41.2%) as well as the UK gilts market (up 28%).
LCH.Clearnet attributes the growth to its expansion of products and enhancements to existing services, plus its “drive” to realize the benefits of the merger of LCH and Clearnet. Those benefits include the introduction of settlement shaping in the French market, and the implementation of Inflation Linked Bonds in the German market and Treasury Bills in the UK.
“The record volumes handled in the first quarter validate the continued efforts of LCH.Clearnet to provide the fixed income dealing community with the types of repo products and services they require,” says John Burke, Director – Fixed Income at LCH.Clearnet. “These statistics are a positive endorsement of the CCP model in fixed income in general, and of the LCH.Clearnet service in particular.”