Derivs - People and Markets

ICE Clear Credit, the credit derivatives clearing unit of Intercontinental Exchange, has been recognised as a third-country (non-EU) central counterparty (CCP) under European rules.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has expanded its interest rate swaps trading rules to require a range of additional products to be cleared through major central counterparties.

Preparing for MiFID II regulations will cost market participants over $2bn in 2017 in IT bills, a study by IHS Markit and Expand has found.

The European Commission could ignore the advice of the European Supervisory Authorities, and carry on carving out covered bond swaps from onerous collateral posting rules.

Intercontinental Exchange has named a replacement for the president of its ICE Clear US operation, Thomas Hammond, who will leave the post at the end of this year.

We noted last week that Deutsche Bank could soon become the widest name in the Markit iTraxx Europe index if its credit deterioration continued. It came to pass perhaps sooner than many expected, with its senior five year spreads closing at 251bp on Monday, 6bp wider than Glencore.

The London Stock Exchange this week moved to deflect a mounting list of European Commission concerns about its proposed merger with Deutsche Börse by saying it would consider selling off its LCH SA French clearing business.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange has presented further research that shows indices investing in options strategies have historically been less volatile than other key stock, bond and commodity benchmarks, following on from another study it unveiled last week.

Syndicated loans are becoming a focal point of firms looking to demonstrate the power of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, with different initiatives ramping up and competing to solve the problem of lengthy settlement times in the private debt market.

Shareholders of the Baltic Exchange have approved the firm’s takeover by the Singapore Exchange.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange has made a push for equity and options trading power in the US and Europe, by agreeing terms this week to buy Kansas-based exchange Bats Global Markets for $3.2bn.

The roll of iTraxx credit indices this week, coupled with a monthly credit options expiry, prompted a burst of trading activity and brought some surprises — with Crossover trading going against expectations and volatility traders entering into unusually long-dated expiries.