The Dutch State Treasury Agency announced that it has decided to enable central clearing of euro denominated interest rate swaps via Eurex Clearing in Frankfurt for the State of the Netherlands.
As Debt Management Office, the Dutch State Treasury Agency is exempt from the obligation to clear swaps through a Central Counterparty (CCP). However, the Dutch State Treasury Agency has investigated options to clear its interest rate swaps centrally for risk management reasons and opted for the services of Eurex Clearing and is expected to operationally start clearing at the end of the year at the earliest. To this end, Eurex Clearing and the State of the Netherlands entered into a clearing agreement on 8 May 2018.
Central clearing of derivatives transactions significantly increases the safety and stability of the financial system. CCPs calculate risks in real-time and demand adequate collateral. Moreover, they guarantee settlement of transactions.
The Dutch State Treasury Agency is a very important new clearing member for us,” said Erik Müller, CEO of Eurex Clearing. “We continue to expand our services for the over-the-counter markets to best support the needs of the financial industry, policy makers and regulators.
Eurex Clearing notes strong demand for clearing services for over-the-counter derivatives like swaps. This brings the G20 closer to their objective of strengthening the stability of the financial system by central clearing of as many transactions as possible.
Swap volumes cleared by Eurex Clearing continue to grow. Since the beginning of 2018, Eurex Clearing has recorded a very significant increase of clearing volumes as part of its partnership program. The notional outstanding has reached more than 5 trillion euros as per April 2018. On-boarding the Dutch State Treasury Agency will further increase the liquidity of Eurex Clearing’s interest rate swap clearing services and makes its offering even more attractive.