Markit’s sync with clearers helps banks optimise collateral
Markit has launched a service to help banks automatically update their risk systems after netting and compression activity at clearing houses. The service is live with LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear and will be rolled out to other clearing-houses. Netting within a clearing-house helps reduce capital and operational costs associated with OTC derivatives. The move comes as regulation prompts market participants to review their collateral optimisation processes.

Markit (Nasdaq:MRKT), a leading global provider of financial information services, today announced the launch of a service to help banks automatically update their risk systems after netting and compression activity at their clearing houses. The service is live with LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear and will expand to other clearing houses.

Netting exposures within a clearing house helps firms reduce the capital and operational costs associated with OTC derivatives. With Markit, firms have a single source for the data they need to cancel trades terminated at clearing houses and create new trades to represent residual positions resulting from the netting process. Firms also gain the ability to reconcile all OTC derivatives trades, cleared and uncleared, with the data maintained centrally by Markit’s trade processing service for OTC derivatives, MarkitSERV.

Markit can also send regulatory reports to update trade repositories on behalf of customers, where applicable.

Claire Lobo, managing director and head of business development for MarkitSERV at Markit, said: “Netting is a critical process for the market but it can create another data management burden and source of operational risk for participants. By synchronising with clearing houses, we update firms in real time about changes to their positions, making it efficient for them to scale their use of netting.”

Cameron Goh, head of Clearing Solutions, SwapClear and Listed Rates Product Management, LCH.Clearnet, said: “We are delighted to be working with Markit to support post trade straight through processing for our members. Having our compression instructions available on the MarkitSERV network leverages Markit’s extensive connectivity to the industry and will enable participants to update their systems more efficiently as they increase the use of our compression services.”

MarkitSERV provides market participants and execution venues with a single point of access to 16 clearing houses worldwide and an integrated, multi asset class service for the management of trade confirmation, clearing, allocation of block trades and regulatory reporting.

Notes to Editors

About Markit

Markit is a leading global provider of financial information services. We provide products that enhance transparency, reduce risk and improve operational efficiency. Our customers include banks, hedge funds, asset managers, central banks, regulators, auditors, fund administrators and insurance companies. Founded in 2003, we employ over 4,000 people in 11 countries. Markit shares are listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MRKT. For more information, please see www.markit.com.

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