Howard Lutnick

Howard Lutnick, chair and chief executive of BGC Group, said: “With this CFTC approval, we will combine our leading Fenics UST cash Treasury platform with our FMX Futures Exchange to deliver competition across the CME’s US interest rate complex. For the first time, the most valuable futures market in the world will have real competition.

“Similar to US interest rate futures, the wholesale US Treasury market had historically been dominated by the CME until we launched Fenics UST. Since our launch, Fenics UST has grown rapidly, reaching 25 percent market share during the third quarter of 2023, up from 18 percent only a year ago. We will execute the same playbook with our FMX Futures Exchange.” 

Read more: CME Group continues SOFR conversions as demand grows

Fenics Markets Xchange combines BGC’s low latency electronic trading platform for US Treasuries, Fenics UST, and FMX US futures trading on one platform.

It has a clearing services agreement with LCH, offering an integrated trading and clearing solution.

Robert Allen, president of FMX Futures Exchange, said: “FMX’s global connectivity and vast distribution, combined with LCH’s highly efficient cross-margin benefits will challenge CME’s most valuable vertical, its US interest rate complex. FMX is the first and only exchange to launch with all the tools necessary to compete and grow in the world’s most important market.”

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The annual Leaders i

The post-trade landscape is constantly evolving, bolstered by technological advancements and regulatory change – particularly in light of Basel 4 and the ongoing Brexit deliberations in the UK and Europe.

With its complete view of the market, The TRADE has named Cboe Clear Europe, Eurex, Euronext Clearing and LSEG’s LCH as the most impressive players in this space thanks to their recent achievements and developments.

Cboe Clear Europe 

Cboe rebranded its clearing house EuroCCP to Cboe Clear Europe late last year, having acquired it two years prior. Since then, the post-trade offering has seen various developments as it continues  to enhance its services, focused on growing its European markets, embracing innovation and supporting its clients’ strategies. The pan-European central counterparty (CCP) has approval to clear cash equities, depositary receipts, ETFs, and equity derivatives (index futures and options). Claiming to be one of the most-connected CCPs in Europe, it offers its services to 48 trading venues, with plans to continue to grow this further. Its overall market share for cash equities clearing was 34% in the first half of 2023, an year-on-year increase from 2022.

In January, Amsterdam-based Cboe Clear Europe became the first non-UK CCP to receive permanent recognition from the Bank of England (BoE). Subsequently, Swiss authorities also authorised Cboe Clear Europe as a recognised CCP in March. Following this, in June, Cboe Clear Europe unveiled an initiative to introduce clearing, settlement and post-trade lifecycle management for SFT transactions in European cash equities and ETFs by Q3 2024. Subject to regulatory approvals, the service will come through its Amsterdam-based clearing house and introduce matching, CCP clearing, settlement and post-trade lifecycle management for SFT transactions in European cash equities and ETFs, and settlement will take place in 19 European Central Securities Depositories (CSDs). The move secured the support of a broad range of key market participants, including banks, clearing firms, asset managers and custodians, including the likes of BNY Mellon, Citi and Goldman Sachs.

Cboe Clear Europe is an independent subsidiary of the Cboe group, operating with its own governance structure and management team – bolstered through the appointment of Vikesh Patel as President in December 2022. He replaced Cécile Nagel, who stepped down from the role in September.

Eurex

Eurex, part of Deutsche Börse Group, has made many high-profile developments over the last year, working to grow its post-trade offering through partnerships and launches. In November last year, it launched a new incentive program aimed at encouraging more euro clearing volumes to the European Union post-Brexit. Through offering an incentive reward of up to 50,000 euros, could qualify when starting the clearing of OTC interest rate swaps (IRS), overnight index swaps (OIS), basis swaps and/or zero-coupon inflation swaps (ZCIS) at Eurex Clearing. Clients running active accounts in the EU could apply from March of this year with the clearinghouse confirming that the move was aimed at reducing reliance on CCPs outside of the EU in line with regulatory objectives. The same month, it expanded its interest rate segment with the launch of three-month Euro STR futures referencing €STR, allowing allow Eurex to offer a listed, centrally cleared and cash-settled solution for trading or hedging the new risk-free rate.

Eurex’s offering allows clients to trade repos with more than 160 registered participants and allows participants to raise or place cash against over 13,000 securities, both domestic and international. The business reached record volumes in its cleared repo markets – doubling across all markets year on year as of September this year. Eurex onboarded State Street in May of this year, becoming the first clearing house outside of the US to trade and centrally clear repo transactions with the move allowing State Street clients to benefit from multilateral netting providing risk management and collateral optimisation. Following this, BNY Mellon selected Eurex as the first clearing house to centrally clear repo trades in Europe. The same month, Goldman Sachs joined exchange Eurex’s listed FX futures business as a trading and clearing member – a “major milestone” in its ambition to become a listed FX liquidity hub in Europe.

In April, Eurex Clearing announced the planned launch its new ESG Clearing Compass, aiming to support the sustainable transformation journey of clearing members and their clients by increasing transparency and awareness regarding cleared portfolios and counterparties. More recently, in June, Eurex incorporated STIR derivatives into its partnership programme, with the aim of establishing an EU-based viable alternative liquidity pool for trading and clearing EURIBOR Futures and Options. Eurex at the time stated that its goal is to “enhance its cross-product efficiencies while also supporting the European systemic stability and strategic autonomy agenda”.

Euronext Clearing

Multi-asset clearing house, Euronext Clearing – formerly CC&G as part of Borsa Italiana – offers risk management on 14 markets and seven countries, covering equities, ETFs, closed-end funds, financial and commodity derivatives, bonds and repos. The year to date represented a key stage of the business’ growth strategy, working to deliver one CCP for all of Euronext’s cash equity, financial and commodity derivatives markets across Europe. The clearing migrations for equities and derivatives clearing are scheduled respectively for end of 2023 and Q3 2024, set to provide harmonised trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure for its members. In January of this year, the exchange negotiated the early termination of its derivatives clearing agreement with LSEG clearing house LCH SA.

In June 2022, Euronext and LCH RepoClear concurrently launched Value at Risk (VaR) methodologies across the respective debt markets they clear, across fixed income, equity and equity derivatives. Euronext’s VaR-based margin methodology focuses on Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Irish government bonds. The move comes as part of the ongoing evolution of Euronext Clearing Risk Management systems and will replace the MVP SPAN-like margin methodology which is currently applied to all bond instruments. The new VaR framework on equity and derivatives, expected this quarter, is part of the European expansion of Euronext Clearing and the firm’s “Growth for Impact 2024” strategic plan. Upon the completion of the migration programme, Euronext Clearing claims to be be Europe’s third-largest CCP.

Over the last three years, Euronext has made continued investment in its clearing business, with 50 new hires as it worked towards its target of 65% headcount growth of Euronext Clearing between 2021 and 2023. The hires have been made across its risk, technology, sales and product development functions. In May, Euronext appointed Roberto Pecora as chief executive officer and general manager of Euronext Clearing, effective from July.

LCH

LCH – an LSEG post-trade business – has seen a swathe of new developments over recent months as it continues to enhance its business on a global scale. It offers its clearing service and risk management offering across a range of asset classes, including: OTC and listed interest rates, fixed income, FX, CDS, equities and commodities. In the last year, LCH has seen significant growth across its services, including  LCH CDSClear which saw a 31% increase versus H1 2022, LCH SwapClear – up 13%; LCH RepoClear with an increase of 12% year on year, and LCH CommodityClear which saw a 9% increase.

The business has been enhanced through various acquisitions and partnerships. In April, LCH entered into a strategic partnership with digital assets trading venue, GFO-X, to launch the UK’s first centrally cleared trading venue for derivatives in this space – scheduled to launch in Q4. Additionally, last year’s acquisition of portfolio optimisation services provider Quantile added important multi-lateral netting capabilities to LSEG’s post-trade division, working to maximise efficiency and better manage risk, capital and funding requirements through Quantile’s multilateral optimisation services. Following this, the completion of the Acadia acquisition in March 2023 further enhanced the offering across multiple asset classes, with Acadia providing risk management, margining and collateral services for the uncleared derivatives markets. Another key milestone came in July, as LCH merged its RepoClear Euro debt service, which includes specials and general collateral, with its tri-party basket repo clearing service €GCPlus, unlocking additional netting opportunities for members.

Most recently, in October , UOB (United Overseas Bank) joined both LCH SwapClear and LCH ForexClear as a direct clearing member, the first Southeast Asian bank to join ForexClear, the last Singapore local banking group to join SwapClear, and the first member globally to join both simultaneously. Earlier in the year Barclays, Barclays Ireland and Goldman became clearing brokers at LCH’s CDSClear, demonstrating the continuing growth of the business, while Standard Chartered and IndusInd Bank partnered to clear its first NDF non-deliverable forward (NDF) client transaction at LCH ForexClear. In August, Corentine Poilvet-Clédière was appointed chief executive of Paris-based European central counterparty LCH SA, assuming the role on 1 October, replacing Christophe Hémon.

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LCH – part of the

It is the first Southeast Asian bank to join ForexClear, the last Singapore local banking group to join ForexClear, and the first member globally to join both simultaneously.

Isabelle Girolami, chief executive of LCH, said: “We are delighted to welcome UOB as a member of our SwapClear and ForexClear services, which is testament to the vibrant banking landscape in APAC and more specifically, Singapore. APAC is a key strategic market and growth driver for LCH, and we are committed to enabling our members to benefit from economies of scale, along with margin, capital, and operational efficiencies that our services deliver. 

“We look forward to continuing our collaboration with UOB as it looks to increase its clearing activity and benefit from LCH’s innovative solutions and diverse set of products available.” 

SwapClear has recorded an 80% growth since 2021 in APAC currencies or currency pairs notional cleared, while ForexClear has recorded 14% growth in notional cleared.  

Read more – LSEG launches in Singapore with NDF Matching venue 

 Leslie Foo, group head of global markets, UOB, said: “We are proud to be the first member globally to concurrently join LCH SwapClear and ForexClear […] Our partnership with LCH will enable us to unlock further liquidity across multiple asset classes, particularly as regulations have placed greater financial resource requirements across our portfolios. We will also benefit from LCH’s world class risk management solutions and the capital and margin efficiencies that it will enable across our rates and FX clearing activity.”

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Following the agreement, Euronext intends to migrate the clearing business of its listed derivatives and commodities markets across Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Oslo Børs and Paris from LCH SA to Euronext Clearing by the third quarter of 2024. Euronext Milan’s listed derivatives business is already cleared by Euronext Clearing.

Once the termination is confirmed, LCH Group will be offered the option to buy back Euronext’s 11.1% stake in LCH SA.

The start of this month marked the first available termination window for the listed derivatives LCH SA contract. It had originally been due to expire in 2027.

“LCH SA’s current agreement with Euronext with regards to financial derivatives and commodity derivatives clearing services will terminate in 2024,” the London Stock Exchange Group said in a statement.

“LCH SA is strategically important to LCH Group and LSEG, clearing thde majority of the Eurozone repo market and the majority of the Euro credit derivatives market, in addition to many European equity market venues. We look forward to continuing to provide clearing services to our global customers, who benefit from access to our multi-asset offering.”

The termination of the contract marks one of the first steps by Euronext to internalise its clearing operations, with the intentions first announced in 2022. In November last year, Euronext confirmed the first phase of the migration with the intention of making Euronext Clearing the “CCP of choice” or primary clearing house for its cash equity markets by the end of the fourth quarter.

Euronext confirmed it intends to continue to offer an open access model for cash equity clearing under which clearing houses such as Cboe Clear Europe, formerly EuroCCP, currently operate.

“This is an internalisation decision. We have decided to internalise wherever we can fundamental features of the organisation,” Stephane Boujnah, chief executive officer at Euronext, told The TRADE in November.

Elsewhere, Euronext also migrated its core data centre in June 2022 from Basildon in the UK to Bergamo in Italy. The exchange is also currently in the process of migrating its Borsa Italiana capital markets business onto its proprietary trading platform, Optiq.

“The expansion of Euronext Clearing to Euronext markets is another significant transformational milestone, allowing Euronext to manage the entire trading value chain, and become a major player in the post-trade space,” said Boujnah in a statement.

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Tim Beckwith, head of commercial development, Cboe Clear Europe:

Philip Brown, CEO, Clearstream Banking S.A.: In 2023, I predict three main notable trends; firstly, digital securities will start to become mainstream, will be better understood, and will start to deliver some of the digitisation benefits we have all anticipated for so long. Secondly, securities collateral management will come back with a vengeance as the changes wrought by the end of the era of low interest rates start to have effect. Thirdly, the more advanced players in the post-trade industry will start to develop really usable ESG solutions to the market, led by Europe and European issuers. After the scares around crypto and tying all these together, investors will wish to see all of this delivered by trusted, financially sound intermediaries who put the safety of their clients’ assets first.  

Susi de Verdelon, head of SwapClear and listed rates, LCH: Next year will see another big step forward in the global transition programme from existing benchmarks to risk-free rates with the cessation of US Dollar Libor in June and the comprehensive adoption of SOFR in its place. An extensive amount of coordination has been central to the implementation of changes that will ultimately see the adoption of rates that are truly representative of their underlying market. As one example of the fruits of this concerted industry effort, swap liquidity has grown considerably in the last 18 months – approximately 90% of USD swap risk cleared into SwapClear is now SOFR-based versus only 10% in January 2021. The USD Libor conversion will be a significant multilateral event – over 600,000 trades at SwapClear alone – which is much larger than previous conversions. With this in mind, as we approach the Q2 2023 conversion dates, it is important that market participants continue to collaborate to create conditions that accommodate the Libor cessation process and that firms have put final preparations in place to ensure a smooth and orderly transition to SOFR.

Phil Simons, global head of FIC Derivatives and repo sales at Eurex: In 2022, we have seen double-digit percentage growth in European repo volumes, both in GC Pooling and the repo market. This trend will clearly continue in 2023. With rising inflation, a changing rates environment and increased volatility, initial margins have gone up considerably. With all that, efficient funding and subsequently financing collateral management will be key for the upcoming year. In addition, the temporary central clearing exemption granted to pension funds by the European Commission is going to expire in June 2023. All these factors mean that the number one priority for 2023 is going to be that the buy-side will be looking for cleared repo and linking that with their derivatives contracts. Repo plays an integral role in the financial markets providing a key source of funding and a substitute for unsecured deposits. The special and general collateral segments enhance the utility of the repo market by providing a means of financing securities portfolios and a mechanism for sourcing valuable collateral, which is of critical importance given the scarcity of high-quality assets.

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The Bank of England’s annual supervision of financial market infrastructures (FMI) report this week laid out plans for the future supervision of systematically important FMIs.

“As a global financial centre, the smooth and safe operation of UK FMIs is vital for international markets,” said deputy governor for financial stability, Sir Jon Cunliffe. “The Bank’s supervision of FMIs is essential for financial stability by ensuring that their risk management and resilience frameworks enable them to carry out their vital functions in normal times and during periods of stress.” 

The bank regulates three broad categories of FMI: payment systems, central securities depositories (CSDs) and central counterparties (CCPs). Currently, it supervises one CSD (Euroclear UK & International) and three CCPs (ICE Clear Europe, London Clearing House (LCH) and the London Metals Exchange); along with payment platforms including Bacs, CHAPS, LINK, Visa Europe and Mastercad Europe, among others.  

The role of FMIs is to simplify complex networks of counterparty exposures, making financial transactions more efficient and secure. Their central role in the financial system means that maintaining their operational and financial resilience is of crucial importance to financial stability. 

However, FMIs can be exposed to multiple sources of disruption, including from other market participants and service providers, as well as their own operations, which can give rise to both financial and operational risks. “FMIs must be financially and operationally resilient in order to be able to absorb, rather than amplify, shocks,” stressed the Bank of England.  

Market volatility over the past year has demonstrated the importance of the resilience of FMIs for financial stability in the UK and abroad, and the latest report outlines how the central bank has stepped up its supervision of these entities in response to the challenging times.  

This includes a new agenda on CCP resilience and recovery, an updated policy on the recognition and supervision of overseas CCPs and CSDs that want to provide services in the UK, and targeted enhancements to supervisory frameworks – with new requirements on FMI operational resilience including consultations to reflect an increased reliance on outsourcing. Also this year, the Bank published its first public supervisory stress rest of UK CCPs, which (reassuringly) confirmed their resilience to market stress scenarios calibrated to be of equal or greater severity than the worst historical market stresses. 

“The BofE’s annual report reinforces the increasing importance of interconnection between FMIs across Europe.”

“The BofE’s annual report reinforces the increasing importance of interconnection between FMIs across Europe,” said Javier Hernani, head of securities services at SIX Group, speaking exclusively to The TRADE.  

“What market participants crave is a far greater array of choice when it comes to clearing services. For instance, if an international trading firm is opening a new euro clearing account, they need to have direct access to the domestic CSDs. Providing connectivity like this is paramount to ensuring the financial stability that the BofE has outlined.” 

Going forward, the UK’s Future Regulatory Framework (currently before Parliament) is likely to step up supervisory attention, as it grants the Bank of England sole rulemaking power over CCPs and CSDs operating in the UK.  

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Under the changes, all relevant market participants will be required to hold active accounts at European CCPs for clearing at least a portion of certain derivative contracts.

As the infrastructure stands, around 90% of over the counter (OTC) EU/US interest rate swaps clearing volumes are handled by the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) LCH SwapClear in the City. Some volumes have migrated to Eurex in Frankfurt since the UK’s split from the EU, while a portion has also reportedly migrated to CCPs based in the US. Regulators in Europe have deemed the level of EU derivatives clearing taking place outside of the EU to be a systemic risk to the Bloc and the changes implemented today are intended to safeguard against these by reducing EU participants reliance on non-EU CCPs.

There were reportedly discussions of SwapClear moving to Paris post-Brexit however the task was reportedly deemed too costly. “Now EU regulators are trying to find something else,” said a source familiar with the matter. “They want to supervise this critical part of the market.”

“We are supportive of the proposed legislative changes to the European Commission’s Emir Review to streamline the supervisory framework for EU CCPs while safeguarding the objectives of Emir and support the European Commission’s ambition to increase the competitiveness of EU CCPs,” a spokesperson from LSEG said in a statement on 7 December.

“We also welcome the acknowledgement of the importance of continued access for EU firms to UK CCPs in order to hedge their risks in all currencies and manage their costs efficiently. We will continue to engage and cooperate with the relevant regulatory authorities in respect of the long-term recognition of LCH Limited on an ongoing basis under EMIR as well as on ESMA proposed risk mitigation measures.”

UK CCPs ICE Clear Europe, LCH and the London Metal Exchange (LME), were granted a temporary three-year equivalence until June 2025 by regulators in March earlier this year, however, they have since stressed that they will not grant any further equivalence decisions and participants should reduce their reliance on CCPs in the UK.

European exchange operator, Euronext issue a statement yesterday: “After Brexit, European Union deserves resilient, safe, and efficient clearing infrastructures to foster growth and drive the Capital Markets Union. As stated by the Commission, it is imperative that EU based clearing infrastructures can compete effectively on a global level.”

Euronext itself is currently in the process of migrating its clearing operations away from LCH to its internal clearing house Euronext Clearing – formerly CC&G – which it acquired as part of its Borsa Italiana deal. If all goes to plan, cash equities clearing is due to migrate in Q4 of next year while listed derivatives are expected to follow in 2024.

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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. 

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It joins a growing member network in the Asia Pacific region at SwapClear, which now has 13 APAC direct members and 170 clients.

“Singapore is a strategic focus for us as we look to expand our services throughout APAC,” said Isabelle Girolami, chief executive officer at LCH, in a statement.

“Through our continued investments in regional products, services, and people we hope DBS and other APAC firms continue to derive incremental value.”

The partnership will also mean DBS is able to post Singapore government bonds as collateral, making LCH the first global offshore clearing house to accept the asset class.

“This partnership will also provide us with the highest standard of risk mitigation and unparalleled capital and margin efficiencies to further fortify our treasury markets business amid an increasingly competitive landscape,” said Andrew Ng, group head of treasury and markets at DBS Bank.  

“In particular, LCH’s expansion of collateral services to include Singapore Government Bonds was a particularly important step to meet our local market needs.”

LCH moved to extend the traditional operating hours of its SwapClear service at the end of last year, implementing a 24 hour a day five day a week system to better support market participants in the region in March.

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In the role he will head up the group’s CCP, CSD and trustee services.

Krunic left his role as head of equities at LCH in the summer after just over three years in the role.

During his tenure at LCH, Krunic was responsible for driving EquityClear’s strategy, overall P&L and managing relationships with clearing members and trading venues.  

Krunic’s career has seen him in a range of post-trade roles at Societe Generale, JP Morgan and Citi, among others.

Additionally, he served on the Supervisory Board of AS PrivatBank, Latvia and is a former board member of the Supervisory Board of the National Settlement Division (Russian Central Securities Depository) and advisor to the Euroclear UK and International CEO.

“I am excited to lead such a diverse and vibrant team within KCC, where I think we have a great opportunity to grow and evolve the domestic capital market,” said Krunic. “By safeguarding the interests of our clearing members and building an open, resilient and transparent market infrastructure we have every opportunity to be a regional leader in the post-trade space.”

Krunic moves to the Middle East CCP at a time of great growth in the region, amplified by the arrival and expansion of incumbent custodians such as BNY Mellon, JP Morgan and Northern Trust in recent years.

The Chairman of KCC, Fahad A. Al-Mukhaizeem, said: “We are delighted to welcome Alex to KCC, his experience speaks volumes and we look forward to working with him and his team in order to build a strong and leading market infrastructure in Kuwait with KCC being the backbone of a stable and vibrant capital market, which will serve the needs of our domestic and international investors.”

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