RepoClear, the central counterparty (CCP) for trading in government bonds owned by the London Clearing House (LCH), has added three new European government bond markets -Ireland, Finland and Portugal – to its service. These additions take LCH RepoClear’s coverage of European government bond markets to seven: Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria, and now Ireland, Finland and Portugal. LCH RepoClear currently clears business in excess of Euro 2 trillion per month.
John Burke, Director, LCH RepoClear said: “We are delighted to introduce the government bond markets of Ireland, Finland and Portugal to the RepoClear service and view this near doubling of the range of European government bond markets covered as a key enhancement of the service offered to market users.
This service extension is still further evidence of LCH RepoClear’s firm commitment to the development of European capital markets. The addition of Ireland, Finland and Portugal will also allow LCH to include these markets in the basket of eligible government bond securities that comprise its recently introduced Euro 12 General Collateral basket, thus providing traders of general collateral a broader range of markets and securities from which to allocate”.
The new markets will be added to LCH RepoClear by the end of April and LCH is confident that the introduction of its CCP service will result in a marked increase in trading volumes in those markets. In addition to the benefits of reduced credit risk, operational risk and operating costs, market participants trading these securities through LCH-approved automated trading systems will be able for the first time to do so on an anonymous basis. LCH looks forward to the trading performance of Irish, Finnish and Portuguese government bonds emulating that of Dutch government bonds, which have more than trebled to over Euro 100 billion of business per month since their addition to LCH RepoClear in December 2000.