"The 'Grain Clearing Company' was established in 1913 to reconcile all future trades at the Kansas City Board of Trade and to guarantee the financial integrity of all trades. In its 90 years of existence, no clearing member or customer has ever had a financial loss due to any kind of default," according to Max L. Barney, Assistant Vice President and Manager of the KCBT Clearing Corp.
On Jan. 14, 1986, the "Grain Clearing Company" changed its name to "Kansas City Board of Trade Clearing Corporation" the name it goes by today.
All contracts for future delivery made during the day are cleared through the Clearing Corp. Therefore, the Clearing Corp. assumes the position of buyer to every seller and seller to every buyer in respect to such transactions as between the Clearing Corp. and such Clearing Members.
In the past 25 years, significant advances have been made in the Clearing Corp. In May 1977 the Clearing Corp. installed its first computer system. At this time, Clearing Corp. staff entered all trades into this system. By late 1987, clearing members were entering their own trades into the system. In December 1995, real-time clearing began and by July 2000, the Clearing Corp. began distributing clearing house reports electronically.
"The financial strength of the Clearing Corp. has allowed our membership tremendous opportunities in futures and options trading and will continue to well into the future," said R. Morgan Shay, KCBT Clearing Corp. President and Director.
The Clearing Corp. has handled the clearing of all futures contracts traded at the KCBT since its inception.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.
