ForexClear members have reduced their notional outstanding by $4.5 billion through the use of the service’s compression solution.
Citi and Standard Chartered Bank are among the first participants to actively compress their trades at ForexClear.
Compression is the process by which clearing members and their clients can eliminate offsetting trades to reduce notional outstanding and the number of line items in a portfolio.
Capital requirements such as those introduced under the Basel III leverage ratio have incentivised banks to reduce notional outstanding.
ForexClear is a 24-hour foreign exchange clearing service, part of the LCH Group.
Tamaryn Nuttall, head of ForexClear Product at LCH, said: “Growth in FX clearing volumes has led to demand for solutions that drive down notional outstanding and contribute to greater capital and operational efficiency.”
She added: “Compressing $4.5 billion in cleared non-deliverable forwards notional is a significant milestone for LCH. We expect uptake of compression services to accelerate significantly over the coming year as clearing volumes continue to grow and as we expand our compression offering.”
Matt Turner, director of facility managers balance sheet management at Standard Chartered Bank, commented: “Having seen the benefits of compression in our rates business, we’re delighted to be an early adopter of compression at ForexClear.”
He added: It’s an effective way to reduce our notional outstanding and improve operational efficiency.”
