Initial trades were executed and cleared by Nomura and affirmed by MarkitSERV, allowing Pierpont Derivatives to leverage MarkitSERV's straight-through-processing affirmation process into its workflow.

"The undisputed leader in interest rate swaps clearing for more than a decade, SwapClear allows new market participants like Pierpont Derivatives to decouple execution from counterparty credit concerns. With the expansion of its clearing expertise to clients via FCMs, SwapClear creates greater access to liquidity with reduced default risk - a benefit for all market participants," said Akshay Das, managing director and head of derivatives sales and trading at Pierpont Derivatives. "Together, SwapClear and Nomura are supporting the commitment of Pierpont Derivatives to clearing interest rate swaps in advance of pending regulatory changes."

"We are delighted to work with Nomura to facilitate Pierpont Derivatives' first foray into interest rate swaps clearing. Buy-side firms are recognizing the risk management benefits of clearing, and are selecting SwapClear as it gives them unparalleled access to market liquidity," said Daniel Maguire, Head of SwapClear U.S. "Nomura is among those leading the way in facilitating centralized clearing for their clients and we are proud to have them as a member."

SwapClear is in constant dialogue with the buy-side to enhance its industry-leading service. Most recently, it announced faster trade registration and risk-free compression. The success of these recent roll-outs has resulted in client notional outstanding growing to US$309 billion.

"Providing client clearing services for OTC derivatives requires a total team effort internally and strong collaboration between client, clearer and clearinghouse," said Stephen Scalzo, Nomura's executive director of Clearing Services. "Working with SwapClear to provide OTC clearing to Pierpont Derivatives underscores Nomura's commitment to our clients and to our jointly shared view that central clearing reduces systemic risk and improves transparency for all market participants."