LCH Clearnet (LCH-C) has admitted it faces stiff challenges to its business despite its annual earnings revealing it saw record volumes pass through it last year, which resulted in record profits. This came in the same week that the clearinghouse also slashed fees for in energy markets by 30%.
"There is no doubt that [LCH-C] faces a serious competitive business challenge from a number of directions - "clearing-driven" mergers, new entrants in our market space, development of alternative trading platforms attracting liquidity from customers served by us," said chief executive, Roger Liddell, in a statement.
Over the past month LCH-C has seen Intercontinental-Exchange (ICE) start to make its first signals that it could potentially take its clearing through its own internal...