By Flora McFarlane.
LCH has announced that its continental Europe-based RepoClear service is now offering clearing on Belgian government bonds.
RepoClear’s monthly volumes currently average €13 trillion, clearing cash bond and repo trades on a wide range of European government securities including German, Italian, French and Spanish government bonds.
LCH claims that this will offer more choice and netting opportunities for its members, adding to its existing offering of repo clearing.
Members will be able offset trades on Belgian debt with eligible European repo transactions cleared at LCH SA, through TARGET2-Securities (T2S).
T2S aims to simplify, and reduce the cost, of cross-border securities settlement. It applies a single set of rules, standards and tariffs to all transactions. LCH SA members will be able to take advantage of T2S across its offering of government securities, choosing where to clear their trades and to do so efficiently.
Belfius Bank and KBC Bank are among the first to clear the new product at LCH SA.
Jeffrey Van Impe, head of repo at Belfius Bank said, “We believe T2S and similar initiatives will play an important role in improving netting and efficiencies in the European bond market.”
©TheDESK 2017
