The London Stock Exchange Group’s clearinghouse LCH has set several new records for its OTC interest rate swap and foreign exchange clearing services.
LCH cleared more than $575.8 trillion in notional in the first half of this year on SwapClear, up 23% from the first half of last year. Similarly, compression activity on the service increased by 24% year-on-year, with over $387.6 trillion being compressed during the first six months of 2018.
On ForexClear, LCH cleared $8.7 trillion in notional from 1.26 million trades, representing a year-on-year increase of 87% and 79% respectively compared to the first half of last year.
LCH currently offers clearing across OTC and listed interest rates, fixed income, FX, credit default swaps (CDS), equities and commodities.
Earlier this week, the clearinghouse confirmed that JP Morgan had has gone live with LCH CDSClear as the first US investment bank to offer client clearing of CDS with LCH.
The move means Swedish pension fund AMF is now clearing European and US credit default swaps through LCH CDSClear with JP Morgan as its clearing broker.
LCH has also been expanding its geographic footprint this month, after gaining approval to clear OTC interest rate derivatives in Mexico.
The firm said at the time that the move provides a greater choice of central counterparties (CCPs) in the country, offering Mexican-domiciled market participants clearing support via LCH SwapClear.