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NASDAQ OMX Clearing today announced its first buy-side client cleared Interest Rate Swap. The first non-member trade was cleared between SEB and Nektar Fund.
”We are pleased to be able to offer buy-side firms access to our OTC clearing service,” said Magnus Billing, President of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm and Head of Fixed Income. “There has been significant buy-side interest for an efficient and effective clearing offering. We are pleased to deliver access to this important client group and the adoption has been positive. We are experiencing steady volume growth and recently reached 200 bn SEK in cleared IRS volumes,” Magnus Billing said.
The OTC instruments available for clearing are Swedish Krona denominated Interest Rate Swaps, Overnight Index Swaps and Forward Rate Agreements. NASDAQ OMX plans to expand the service to also include Danish Krona, Norwegian Krona and Euro denominated instruments during 2014. Buy-side firms can access the OTC clearing service through approved OTC clearing members (see full list via link provided below).
The total open interest in Interest Rate Swaps now accumulates to over SEK 200 bn. NASDAQ OMX is the second largest IRS Clearinghouse in Europe.
“Our goal has always been to support buy-side clearing access,” said Tomas Engel, Sales & Development at SEB Clearing Services.
“We look forward to maintaining an attractive and robust client clearing service, increasing currency and our product scope for years to come,” said Gabriel Vimberg, Sales & Development at SEB Clearing Services.
”We have cleared our Scandinavian trading business with NASDAQ OMX for many years and have followed their swap clearing development efforts closely. We feel confident and excited to clear our first SEK Swap with NASDAQ OMX,” said Gunnar Wiljander, CEO at Nektar Asset Management, a part of Brummer & Partners group.
See below link with list of approved interest rate swap clearing members:
http://www.nasdaqomx.com/europeanclearing/products/fixed-income/rates-otc-clearing/members
