The deadline of July 31 for the European credit default swap market to begin using central counterparty clearing has arrived, and the industry has met the deadline – just.
ICE Clear Europe began clearing CDS in Europe this week, having started operating on Wednesday July 29, and Eurex Credit Clear put out a statement on Friday lunchtime saying it had cleared its first CDS transaction on Thursday.
ICE is clearing contracts on the three main European iTraxx indices – the largest and most liquid CDS contracts in Europe. Eurex is offering those as well as trades on 17 iTraxx constituent companies in the utility sector. It plans to add more single names until it covers all the iTraxx constituents.
A spokesperson for ICE in Atlanta would not reveal how much activity there had been, saying weekly volume figures would be announced on Monday morning as usual. She added: “We have 10 members...