Commerzbank joins up to new margining service

Commerzbank has become the first sell-side institution to sign up to OpenGamma’s new margining service, in the build up to new central clearing requirements.

The agreement comes just two months before Category 1 institutions will be required to clear certain OTC derivatives products under EMIR regulations.

OpenGamma’s hosted service, launched in January, provides access to margin analysis with no overhead needed for data integration or local software deployment.

The service will also enable customers to compare OTC and ETD margin requirements across multiple CCPs.

“This agreement allows Commerzbank to focus on our OTC Clearing strengths, assured that vital margin analysis coverage we provide for clients remains in step with market developments – all at a crucial stage in the onset of central clearing,” said Nick Chaudhry, head of OTC clearing at Commerzbank Corporates & Markets, the investment banking division of Commerzbank AG.

Peter Rippon, COO of OpenGamma said, “We are seeing increasing demand in the run-up to Category 2 clearing, as buy-side firms need a cost-effective method of analysing the impact of initial and variation margin.”