NASDAQ OMX Clearing, the European clearing arm of exchange operator Nasdaq OMX, has cleared its first buy-side client interest rate swap, between Swedish bank SEB and Nektar Fund, a unit of Stockholm-based Brummer & Partners.
”We are pleased to be able to offer buy-side firms access to our OTC clearing service,” said Magnus Billing, president of Nasdaq OMX Stockholm and head of fixed income. “There has been significant buy-side interest for an efficient and effective clearing offering. We are pleased to deliver access to this important client group and the adoption has been positive. We are experiencing steady volume growth and recently reached 200 billion Swedish krona in cleared IRS volumes.”
Nasdaq OMX Clearing currently clears Swedish krona-denominated interest rate swaps, overnight index swaps and forward rate agreements, but intends to extend its services to include Danish krona, Norwegian krona and euro-denominated instruments during 2014.
Buy-side firms can access Nasdaq OMX Clearing’s OTC clearing service through six approved OTC clearing members. The availability of clearing for Swedish krona-denominated interest rate swaps was first announced by Nasdaq OMX Clearing in December 2012, in anticipation of the European market infrastructure regulation (EMIR), which will mandate central reporting and clearing of OTC derivatives.
It is unclear when buy-side firms will have to start clearing OTC derivatives trades under EMIR, but it is currently expected that clearing obligations will begin in the second half of 2014.