LCH, a leading global clearing house, has announced that its SwapClear service is preparing to extend its traditional operating hours to 24 hours a day, five days a week in March 2022. This will better support market participants in the Asia Pacific region and will be implemented in two phases.

#LCH #SwapClear is preparing to extend operating hours to 24hrs, 5 days a week, to better support market participants in #APAC, and will be implemented in two phases. https://t.co/H9hXQ09g4t pic.twitter.com/QbMqO9xrcS

— LCH, An LSEG Business (@LCH_Clearing) October 1, 2021

As part of the first stage of implementation on 27 September, SwapClear moved its Monday morning opening 4 hours earlier so that it 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 is scheduled to be extended by March 2022.

In March 2022, SwapClear will move to operating 24 hours a day, five days a week. Opening at 05:00 Sydney time on Monday / 20:00 London time (Sunday evening) and closing at 09:00 Saturday Sydney time / 00:00 Friday night London time.

SwapClear provides the deepest liquidity in the OTC interest rate swaps clearing market and access to clear 95 percent of the “vanilla” IRS market. Its extensive product offering makes it simple to comply with regulations, while SwapClear’s additional products and services enable clients to drive capital and operational efficiencies across their Rates portfolios.

This new development is especially relevant to the APAC region as it will deliver clearing certainty during the Asia Pacific morning for SwapClear’s regional members and clients, including the Australia market.

Susi DeVerdelon, Head of SwapClear, LCH, said: “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, LCH, added: “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.”

Source: LCH