Turquoise adds third clearer

Turquoise, the pan-European multilateral trading facility owned by the London Stock Exchange, has added SIX x-clear to its list of central counterparties.

Turquoise, the pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) owned by the London Stock Exchange (LSE), has added SIX x-clear to its list of central counterparties (CCPs).

With SIX x-clear, Turquoise now offers three CCPs, the others being Anglo-French clearer LCH.Clearnet, which was added last November and was recently bought by the LSE, and incumbent provider EuroCCP. The MTF will complete its interoperability offering with Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia (CC&G), the Italian CCP the LSE acquired as part of its takeover of Borsa Italiana in 2007, although a date for its inclusion has not yet been set.

“This is another important step towards achieving true competition in clearing and great news for our clients, who can now consolidate their operations across an ever-broadening range of venues,” said Tomas Kindler, head of clearing relations at SIX Securities Services, the parent company of SIX x-clear. “To this end, we will continue our expansion across Europe and look forward to offering our services on even more platforms in 2012.”

The addition of CC&G will see Turquoise join BATS Chi-X Europe, the dual multilateral trading facility created through a merger in November last year, in offering a choice of four clearing houses.

As of 6 January, BATS Chi-X Europe members have been able to clear through EMCF, SIX x-clear, EuroCCP and LCH.Clearnet.

Scandinavian trading venues Nasdaq OMX Nordic and Burgundy are set to follow suit with their own interoperability initiatives within the next two months.

Besides Nasdaq OMX Nordic, domestic exchanges have so far dragged their feet on interoperability. While the LSE and SIX Swiss Exchange have offered the choice of LCH.Clearnet and SIX x-clear since 2008, neither has committed to extending their offering further. Deutsche Börse, Spain’s Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles and NYSE Euronext have all refused to engage in interoperability discussions thus far.

However, these exchanges could be compelled under MiFIR, a regulation that will accompany MiFID II, to open up their clearing infrastructure to competitors. Implementation of MiFID II will take place during 2014 at the earliest.

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