SIX x-clear, the Central Counterparty (CCP) and licensed Swiss bank, today announced an agreement with Liquidnet, the premier institutional investment community, to provide exclusive clearing services for its Streaming Liquidity Participants (SLPs) in seven new markets.
These participants include brokers, exchanges, and MTFs that provide additional liquidity to Liquidnet's leading block trading platform.
SIX x-clear currently provides clearing services for Liquidnet's SLPs in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands, and will now offer centralised clearing across the markets in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and Portugal.
The clearing arrangement with SIX x-clear also provides Liquidnet with a comprehensive risk management framework. SIX x-clear is the only CCP to provide real-time risk management, computing risk calculations for each trade across the seven new Liquidnet markets and updating positions instantly.
Liquidnet's block trading platform offers buy-side only access to one of the deepest pools of institutional liquidity in the market. SLPs provide Liquidnet members with additional actionable liquidity, equipping institutional investors with the greatest choice when executing block orders, all without comprising anonymity, information protection or market impact.
Marco Strimer, CEO of SIX x-clear, commented: "Extending our service into seven new markets highlights the strength of our offering. We are pleased to continue our relationship with Liquidnet and look forward to working with them as they expand their reach into new markets. Centralised clearing helps the proper functioning of a market and provides clients with the systems, comfort and confidence they need to trade efficiently, an aim shared by our partners at Liquidnet."
John Barker, Managing Director of Liquidnet in Europe, added: "Liquidnet now offers its institutional members access to liquidity across 37 markets worldwide, and we are committed to providing comprehensive risk management as part of our services to our community. Counterparty risk remains one of the key challenges for financial markets and the role of CCPs has been highlighted as vital in mitigating this risk. Our partnership with SIX x-clear demonstrates our focus on additional risk management and we look forward to benefitting from their expertise and to passing these benefits on to our buy-side community across these new markets."