WMBA Welcomes Launch of ICE Clear and Eurex Clearing

The Wholesale Market Brokers’ Association (WMBA), an independent industry body representing the world’s largest interdealer brokers, welcomes the clearing of the first European CDS contracts today by ICE Clear and Eurex Clearing. These first contracts are based on Europe’s iTraxx index and also 17 ‘single name’ constituents from the utility sector.

David Clark, chairman of the WMBA, says: “We congratulate Eurex and ICE on the work they have done with the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), other ‘home’ regulators and the European Commission to meet the industry agreed deadline of 31 July 2009 for clearing CDS contracts. We also note the remarkable achievements of ISDA in enabling this process in such a timely manner.”

He continues: “We are hopeful that clearing will re-establish liquidity and volumes in the CDS market, which together will benefit market participants and end users alike.”