Banca IMI, the investment bank of Intesa Sanpaolo Group, has joined LCH’s CDSClear services, marking the first Italian clearing member of the global clearinghouse.
By joining the service, Banca IMI now has access to the clearing of credit derivatives referencing both single names and indices.
Additionally, it will act as a clearing broker, offering credit default swap (CDS) clearing services to its client base.
Banca IMI is already a member of LCH SA’s EquityClear and RepoClear clearing services; the extension of the membership means the bank will benefit from CDSClear’s product offering.
The investment bank will also be able to benefit from CDSClear’s risk management expertise and achieve margin efficiencies through the portfolio margining of offsetting positions cleared at LCH SA.
Frank Soussan, global head of CDSClear, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Banca IMI as CDSClear’s first Italian clearing member, marking an important stage in our growth.”
“During 2018, we significantly grew our client clearing business in Europe, as well as processing record volumes of cleared notional, and we look forward to continuing to extend our clearing membership and activity during the course of 2019.”
Massimo Mocio, general manager of Banca IMI, commented: “Joining CDSClear means that Banca IMI and our clients can benefit from LCH’s robust risk management across a wide range of credit derivatives.”
Mocio added: “Clearing enables us to mitigate counterparty risk as well as benefit from the capital and operational efficiencies associated with clearing."
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