IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) expanded its credit derivatives clearing service to Europe Wednesday, launching with the support of 10 major Wall Street banks.

The Atlanta-based exchange began clearing index-based credit-default swap contracts this week via its ICE Clear Europe arm, just ahead of European banks' self-imposed deadline of July 31 for clearing their credit derivatives trades.

Initial clearing members in the venture include Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS.

The support of those banks, which account for most credit derivatives trading, has proved key to ICE's success in the U.S., where its ICE Trust platform remains the sole functioning CDS clearing platform.

The European credit derivatives market is also being targeted by Eurex, the derivatives unit of Deutsche Boerse (DB1.XE), which unveiled its Eurex Credit Clear platform last week.

Chicago-based CME Group Inc. (CME) also has plans to clear credit derivatives in Europe, though its U.S. platform has stalled as the exchange operator works to secure bank support for the venture.

NYSE Euronext (NYX) was the first exchange company with a European CDS clearing solution, launched in conjunction with LCH.Clearnet in December 2008, but that effort is being reviewed by the exchange after it failed to attract any business since its launch.

ICE remains the most successful in the race to clear over-the-counter credit products. Since launching in March, ICE Trust has cleared $1.6 trillion in North American CDS indexes.

That platform, which initially limited participation to major banks, will soon introduce protections for buy-side participants.

-By Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 750-4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com