CLS Group (CLS), a provider of risk mitigation and operational services for the global Forex market, and Markit Ltd (NASDAQ:MRKT), an international provider of financial information services, today announced the launch of a new Forex settlement service for the cross currency swaps market.
The new service, built in consultation with major financial institutions in the cross currency swaps market, results in greater operational efficiencies and, thanks to multilateral netting, cuts liquidity and payment demands across the industry.
The service provides a streamlined process for the payments related to cross currency swap trades trades by incorporating them into CLS’s existing payment-versus-payment (PvP) settlement service. CLS receives settlement instructions from cross currency swaps electronically confirmed using MarkitSERV, Markit’s OTC derivatives trade processing service.
Charles J Bristow, Co-Head of Global Rates Trading and Head of Funding for Macro Markets, at JP Morgan, comments:
“Settlement remains a critical risk for the market to manage, particularly across products where the exposure to FX settlement can be significant. This new service developed by CLS and Markit to settle cross currency swaps is an important step which will help to mitigate settlement based risks.”
Andrew Hinchliff, Executive General Manager, Global Markets, IB&M division, at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, comments:
“Demand for more effective post-trade clearing and settlement services from regulatory bodies and market participants has never been more acute. The extension of CLS’s settlement service to the growing cross currency swaps market is a welcome addition that will mitigate systemic risk and reduce counterparty exposure across OTC markets.”
David Puth, CEO of CLS, comments:
“As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce settlement risk for our members, we are continuously looking to enhance the portfolio of FX products that can be launched on our platform. This new service, developed with Markit and our global community of settlement members, is another example of the industry working together to introduce innovative ways to reduce systemic risk in the global FX and OTC derivatives market.”
Brad Levy, Managing Director and Head of Markit’s Processing division, said:
“Working with CLS to streamline trade settlement for cross currency swaps demonstrates how service providers can work together to make swaps market operations more efficient. This service brings settlement to the diverse community of market infrastructure providers and OTC derivatives end users connected by the MarkitSERV network.”