CME Group’s Traiana has said it is now providing direct central clearing connectivity to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing’s (HKEX) OTC Clear business for FX derivatives.
The move means market participants can now access HKEX’s OTC Clear to clear USD/CNH and USD/HKD FX forwards and swaps through Traiana’s clearing hub, known as CCP Connect, for affirmation, matching and trade processing.
Member banks can clear deliverable FX trades using Traiana’s workflow and connectivity options, regardless of how they were executed. At the same time, clients of Traiana and electronic trading venues can adopt the HKEX clearing workflow in addition to the Traiana FX post-trade processing service.
“As the number of firms looking to voluntary clear FX instruments continues to rise, central clearing connectivity is becoming more and more important to our client base,” said CME’s head of optimisation in Asia, Guy Rowcliffe. “Our partnership with HKEX, provides the market with an innovative initiative which can be used to address a number of challenges associated with standard bi-lateral trade lifecycle management.”
HKEX OTC Clear for FX deliverables can also mitigate settlement risk brought about when payments and receipts of different currencies occur at various intervals during a bilateral settlement process.
“We are very happy to be working with Traiana,” Jacky Mak, head of OTC and FIC business development in HKEX’s Clearing division, added. “It enhances our ability to connect with the growing number of market participants interested in HKEX’s broad range of services including RMB-related services.”
Traiana, which specialises in the automation of cross-asset risk management and pre- and post-trade processing, is now part of CME Group following the exchange operator’s £3.9 billion acquisition of NEX Group in November.