The TRADE is happy to introduce the shortlist for our Editors’ Choice, Outstanding Post-Trade Services Provider. The shortlisted post-trade services providers have all experienced great years and achieved outstanding performance. Learn more about our shortlisted candidates below, including DTCC, Deutsche Börse, Euronext, LCH and OSTTRA.
DTCC
Earlier this year, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) went live with its distributed ledger technology (DLT) based settlement platform in a parallel production environment, processing up to 160,000 transactions per day. Named Project Ion, the platform has been in the works since May 2020, with a view to support a netted T+0 settlement cycle, as well as T+2, T+1 and extended cycles.
Going live in parallel to existing settlement infrastructure, the project is processing an average of over 100,000 bilateral equity transactions per day, and almost 160,000 transactions on peak days. The Depository Trust Company’s (DTC) classic settlement systems remaining the authoritative record. Project ION has been developed in collaboration with the likes of BNY Mellon, Citi and JP Morgan.
Elsewhere, DTCC Institutional Trade Processing (ITP) provides an open, post-trade infrastructure that aims to remove redundancies and manual processing across asset classes in an effort to create a place where users can manage the entire trade lifecycle, from post-execution to settlement, on one platform.
Deutsche Börse
Deutsche Börse Group’s clearing houses, Eurex Clearing AG and European Commodity Clearing AG, act as central counterparties, i.e. as buyer to each seller and as seller to each buyer, to minimise credit default risk. The clearing houses offer efficient clearing of a wide range of transaction types, both on-exchange and over-the-counter (OTC).
Deutsche Börse recently acquired the North American Nodal Exchange by the EEX Group, adding a third clearing house, Nodal Clear, to its roster.
Towards the end of last year, Deutsche Börse rolled out a major technology overhaul with the launch of digital post-trade platform. The fully digital post-trade platform provides same-day-issuance and paperless, automated straight-through processing for the entire value chain of issuance, custody, settlement, and asset servicing for digital securities.
Working with distributed ledger technology (DLT) specialist, Digital Asset, as a partner on the project, the German exchange group’s new initiative uses a cloud-backed and DLT-ready platform to enable the digitisation of financial products with continuing access to both existing central and distributed infrastructures and markets.
Euronext
Euronext serves as the largest pan-European exchange and market infrastructure, connecting seven markets across the continent. The last year has proved fruitful for the exchange with surging trading volumes alongside a series of successful acquisitions.
In August, Euronext reported a particularly ‘solid’ Q2 driven by the sustained dynamism of non-volume activities and of trading operations. The exchange reported a 14% increase in revenue and income in Q2 of this year, compared to the same period last year, which reached €374.7 million – driven by the growth of non-volume related business and trading activities.
Non-volume related revenue accounted for 59% of Euronext’s Q2 total revenue this year, while trading revenue grew to €129.2 million, a 15.6% increase compared to the same period last year – a result linked to robust performance across all asset classes in a volatile market environment. Growth was also driven by the recent Borsa Italiana acquisition, which also bumped up the exchange’s strong Q1 results.
Elsewhere, Euronext reported that net income, share of the parent company shareholders was up 37.2% to €118.9 million, an increase by €32.2 million compared to the same period last year.
LCH
Global clearing house LCH, which is part of the post-trade division of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), has had an impressive year with several revenue increases across its business. LCH continues to partner with market participants globally to offer clearing services and provide risk management capabilities across a range of asset classes, including OTC and listed interest rates, fixed income, FX, CDS, equities and commodities.
The clearing house has helped reduce systemic risk and strengthen stability in financial markets alongside allowing participants to benefit from capital and operational efficiencies. In 2021, LSEG post-trade experienced improved revenue figures, with total income rising to £483 million, which was an increase by 8.5% compared to 2022. This comprised of £191m for OTC derivatives; £122m for securities and repo; £49m for non-cash collateral and £121m for net trade income (NTI). Elsewhere, LCH has seen growth across its services and record clearing activity in H1 2022.
OSTTRA
OSTTRA was formed in 2021 through the combination of four businesses that have been involved in the post-trade for over 20 years, namely MarkitServ, Traiana, TriOptima and Reset. The combination of these businesses allows OSTTRA to play a role in supporting global financial markets, connecting thousands of counterparties via its multi-asset networks that support the post-trade lifecycle from trade capture, through portfolio optimisation, to clearing and settlement services.
OSTTRA boasts over 9,000 connections on its network, including major banks, investment managers and clearing houses. The firm processes over 80 million trades monthly, including matching, confirming and booking transactions, managing credit limits and reconciling portfolios. Every second, OSTTRA performs over 10 trillion calculations, optimising counterparty risk, margin and capital efficiency.
As a company, OSTTRA looks to keep pace with market reforms. Through ongoing dialogue with regulators and market participants, OSTTRA responds to new regulatory mandates with standardised solutions and workflows that minimise costs and compliance risks for its customers.
Elsewhere, to manage market volatility, OSTTRA continually works with its client base to automate and streamline new steps in post trade workflows to improve efficiency and reduce operational risk during peak market volumes.