LIBOR Fallbacks and Uncleared Margin Rules
LIBOR fallbacks and Uncleared Margin Rules are hot topics across the industry. We highlight the Basel guidance that any amendments to LIBOR contracts as a result of Benchmark reform will not trigger the need to post margin. This is important guidance to ensure the uptake of new RFRs is simple. Two of our big blog […]
Swaps Data: A new era of competition in IR Futures
The demise of Libor has sett off a battle for market share in futures referencing new risk-free rates. My monthly Swaps Review looks at: The three largest IBOR contracts SOFR Futures market share SONIA Futures market share CME, ICE, CurveGlobal, Eurex Please click here for free access to the full article on Risk.net.
SONIA and SOFR trading and Term Risk Free Rates
The use of Risk Free Rates (RFRs) such as SONIA and SOFR continues to grow. Volumes are increasing as described in recent Clarus blogs, see SOFR Volumes April 2019, SARON Activity and Growth in RFR Markets. But the development of a term market in RFRs is still in it’s early stages. Clearing House data shows […]
Optimising IM in Swaptions
Whille writing my recent blogs on FX SIMM IM optimization (here and here), I wondered about progress on the Rates equivalent. I knew swaptions to be key and that Capitalab had focused on them from the get-go and also that Capitalab pipes executions through its affiliated BGC SEF. So, I took at look in SEFView […]
Migrating to Cloud – An Insider’s Guide
In earlier blogs we have discovered the agility inherent in Cloud, but how do organisations manage to tap into this, with all their legacy systems? In this blog we will cover the strategy and issues involved in migrating a large systems estate. We will start by assuming foundational Cloud concerns for financial organisations such as […]
LIBOR Fallbacks Again
ISDA has launched a second consultation on LIBOR fallbacks. This extends the number of benchmarks covered to eight currencies. The big one this time is USD LIBOR, which is interesting because USD SOFR has a limited history available. Fortunately, the New York Fed has made a proxy USD repo rate available back to 1998. 78% […]
NDF Clearing 2019
We update our analysis on NDF Clearing in 2019. We find that 20% of the overall market is now cleared. NDF volumes in Asian currency pairs have rocketed higher. Clearing volumes have reached somewhat of a plateau. Why? NDF Volume Analysis Finding up-to-date analysis on uncleared OTC derivatives is currently a frustrating job. The last […]
PaaS and SaaS – What you need to know
In my last blog I described the origins of Cloud and highlighted some of the benefits of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), but this does not reflect the real value of Cloud. To uncover this, we will explore the concepts of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Platform as a […]
Current Clearing Rates
The death of uncleared markets has been widely over-reported. We look at Clarus CCPView and recent BIS data to look at the size of uncleared markets. Interest Rate derivatives remain the largest, followed by FX. Credit is very small in comparison when measured by notional outstanding. We strongly advocate further transparency into the remaining stock […]
Infrastructure as a Service – the Bedrock of Cloud
In this blog I will explain the origins and key features of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), the core foundations of what we think of as Cloud. Cloud computing is an evolutionary consequence of a sequence of technology innovations, stretching from human based computing, across generations of hardware and networking, to the advent of virtualisation […]