LCH, the London Stock Exchange Group’s global clearing house, is to extend the traditional operating hours of its SwapClear service to 24 hours a day, five days a week from March 2022.
LCH hopes the initiative will better support market participants in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
The change in operating hours is the second implementation of extended trading hours, following the first stage of implementation on 27 September, when SwapClear moved its Monday morning opening to four hours earlier, meaning the service is now open from 09:00 Sydney time / 00.00 London time.
Previously, SwapClear was open 20 hours a day, five days a week and was closed during the APAC morning.
The remaining Tuesday through Friday early morning operating hours are scheduled to be extended by March 2022.
From next March, the service will open at 05:00 Sydney time on Monday / 20:00 London time (Sunday evening) and close at 09:00 Saturday Sydney time / 00:00 Friday night London time.
This new development is especially relevant to the APAC region, says LCH, as it will deliver clearing certainty during the APAC morning for SwapClear’s regional members and clients, including the Australia market.
SwapClear provides liquidity in the over-the-counter interest rate swaps clearing market.
Susi DeVerdelon, head of SwapClear, at LCH, says: “This extension in operating hours reinforces our position as a leading global clearing house and directly responds to a critical request from our APAC members and clients to support their needs. It has also been strongly supported by regulators across the region.”
Rohit Verma, head of APAC at LCH, comments: “This initiative underscores our strong commitment to the region and risk management. In the extended hours earlier this week, close to a thousand trades were registered and processed near real-time and allowed our users to risk-manage those trades in a timely fashion.”
