ICE surpasses $15 trillion milestone in CDS clearing
IntercontinentalExchange® (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of regulated global futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, announced that its credit default swap (CDS) clearing houses surpassed $15 trillion in cumulative gross notional value and 400,000 transactions during the week ending January 21, 2011.
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"In a little less than two years, ICE and its clearing members have made substantial progress toward increasing stability and transparency in the CDS market, and in reducing systemic risk globally," said Scott Hill, Senior Vice President and CFO of ICE. "This is a significant achievement, and we'll look to build on it in 2011 with the expansion of our products and services."
ICE's North American CDS clearing house, ICE Trust, crossed $9 trillion in gross notional cleared during the week, resulting in cumulative open interest of $542 billion. ICE Trust offers clearing for 37 indexes and 89 single-name contracts. To date, ICE Trust has cleared $8.4 trillion in North American CDS indices (CDX) and $636 billion in single-name CDS. ICE Trust began clearing North American CDS in March 2009 with 10 clearing members and today has 14 clearing members. ICE Trust expects to offer single-name buy-side clearing in 2011.
Through January 21, ICE Clear Europe cleared 3.8 trillion Euro ($5.1 trillion) in iTraxx indices and 695 billion Euro ($920 billion) in single-name instruments, resulting in 470 billion Euro ($633 billion) of open interest. ICE Clear Europe offers clearing for 30 indexes and 101 single-name instruments. The clearing house began clearing European CDS in July 2009 with 10 clearing members and today has 15. ICE Clear Europe expects to offer buy-side clearing and to commence clearing of Western European sovereign CDS contracts in 2011.