ICE Sets Sights on US Treasuries Clearing

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is set to launch a clearing service for all US treasury securities and repurchasing agreements according to a story in The Trade news. The move comes as the exchange seeks to enhance both the transparency and resilience of the US treasury market, leveraging its long-standing experience as a clearing house for credit derivatives.  ICE explained that it believes its offering is “strategically positioned” to take this next step and will promote competition and enable the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) policy objectives around the standardized risk management of the treasury securities market. ICE’s new bond clearing business is set to leverage ICE Clear Credit – the exchange’s existing clearing house for credit default swaps (CDS). However, ICE confirmed that the new offering will have a separate rulebook, membership, risk management framework, financial and liquidity resources, and risk committee.