Central Clearing

As a member of the International Derivatives Clearinghouse, trading, investment, and market-making firms are able to clear and settle new and existing OTC interest rate swap contracts traded bilaterally with dealers. New interest rate swap contracts will also be traded on an exchange.

The International Derivatives Clearinghouse offers market participants the ability to replace their existing portfolio of bilateral interest rate swap contracts with economically equivalent listed IDEX Swap Future™ contracts. The contracts are then cleared and settled through IDCH, provided both parties to the original agreements confirm the novation of the contracts to International Derivatives Clearinghouse.

IDCG's SwapDrop™ product provides a way for members of International Derivatives Clearinghouse to execute a transaction off-exchange for clearing through International Derivatives Clearinghouse.

Benefits of Central Clearing

• Distributed risk through a central clearing agent
• Manage net positions
• Reduced transaction costs
• Increased available credit
• Increased transparency
• Lower systemic risk
• Uniform risk standards and protocols

IDCG Swap Curve ™

IDCG constructed a real-time swap curve - IDCG Swap Curve™ that is used to value the existing portfolios and provide simple, replicable and transparent tool for market participants.

IDEX USD Interest Rate Swap Futures

IDCH centrally clears Interest Rate Swap (IRS) Futures contracts designed to be economically equivalent to plain vanilla IRS contracts currently traded in the OTC market. IRS Futures are contracts on USD denominated interest rate swaps with a notional value of $100,000, requiring the exchange of periodic semi-annual fixed rate payments based on the futures price in exchange for quarterly floating rate payments.

Margin Relief

IDCH offers tenor-based initial margin relief for risk offsetting positions.

IDEX USD Forward Start Interest Rate Swap Futures

Currently listed IDEX USD Forward Start Interest Rate Swap maturities are detailed in the table below. All maturities are based on a 3 month index.

Regulatory References