CHICAGO, Nov. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the
world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, today
announced that it set new monthly records for clearing interest
rate swaps (IRS) and credit default swaps (CDS). For the
month of October, the company cleared $45.5
billion in OTC IRS and CDS volume, including $6 billion in dealer-to-dealer volume, exceeding
the previous record monthly total of $41.9
billion in September 2011.
As of November 8, 2011, the
company has cleared more than $99
billion in OTC IRS and CDS through its open clearing
solutions since launch. Additionally, open interest stood at
$77.3 billion in IRS and $7.9 billion in CDS.
CME Group also expanded its existing CDS offering on
November 7, 2011, with the launch of
the CDX high yield indices, which cleared $644 million in its first two days. This
new offering is in addition to the launch of Euro-denominated IRS
on October 17, which has cleared more
than euro 4.5 billion to date.
By year-end, CME Group will extend its IRS offering to
include the British pound, Japanese yen, Swiss franc and Canadian
dollar-denominated IRS. According to data from the Bank for
International Settlements, these six currencies account for 94
percent of the vanilla IRS market.
"CME Group has worked diligently with market participants to
build the leading OTC clearing service by U.S. customer volume,"
said Laurent Paulhac, CME Group Managing Director, OTC Products
& Services. "Our continued momentum with customer
acquisition and product expansion is leading to continuous volume
growth, including inter-dealer clearing where we've started to see
some very material activity last month. We are very pleased
with the support we are receiving from our customers and dealer
partners, leading to clearing activity on our newly launched EUR
IRS and CDX HY products."
"BofA Merrill Lynch continues to assist clients in counterparty
risk management through the early adoption of OTC clearing," said
Bob Burke, Global Head of OTC
Clearing at BofA Merrill Lynch. "The continued growth in open
interest at CME Group coupled with their expanded IRS and CDS
product range allows our clients to proactively clear their OTC
derivative trades. Early uptake is key in preparing clients for
mandatory clearing by allowing them enough time to adjust their own
internal processes and procedures."
"UBS continues to partner closely with CME Group in the
transition to central clearing for OTC derivatives," said
Mark Daniels, Head of Clearing Sales
- UBS Americas. "Early participation through voluntarily clearing
is an invaluable opportunity for infrastructure and process
optimization ahead of the mandatory deadline. UBS is committed to
ensuring our clients are fully prepared and we welcome the recent
increase in OTC clearing activity as well as an expanded product
scope at CME Group."
To learn more about CME Group's OTC clearing offering, visit our
resources on IRS and CDS.
As the world's leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace,
CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) is where the world comes to manage
risk. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global
benchmark products across all major asset classes, including
futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes,
foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather
and real estate. CME Group brings buyers and sellers together
through its CME Globex® electronic trading platform and its trading
facilities in New York and
Chicago. CME Group also
operates CME Clearing, one of the world's leading central
counterparty clearing providers, which offers clearing and
settlement services for exchange-traded contracts, as well as for
over-the-counter derivatives transactions through CME ClearPort®.
These products and services ensure that businesses everywhere can
substantially mitigate counterparty credit risk in both listed and
over-the-counter derivatives markets.
CME Group is a trademark of CME Group Inc. The Globe Logo, CME,
Globex and Chicago Mercantile Exchange are trademarks of Chicago
Mercantile Exchange Inc. CBOT and the Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of the
Board of Trade of the City of
Chicago, Inc. NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and
ClearPort are registered trademarks of New York Mercantile
Exchange, Inc. COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange,
Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners. Further information about CME Group (NASDAQ:
CME) and its products can be found at www.cmegroup.com.
CME-G
SOURCE CME Group