The two largest pan – European cash equities clearing houses will merge

Pan-European cash equities clearing houses EuroCCP and the European Mulitlateral Clearing Facility (EMCF) have agreed to merge their operations. The deal means that clients will benefit from substantial settlement cost savings, reduced collateral obligations, removal of one set of membership fees, improved IT, and lower connectivity expenses, claim the firms.

The partners say that the new clearing house will use the risk management framework and customer-service organisation of EuroCCP but run on the technology and operations infrastructure of EMCF. The new entity, to be called EuroCCP, is planned to be headquartered in Amsterdam, with client-facing functions located in London and Nordic coverage provided from Stockholm.

Jan Booij, CEO, EMCF said: “ This is not only a transformational initiative for EMCF and EuroCCP but for the industry. It will enable us to provide more flexible and innovative clearing services to all clients, while our sustainable business model will ensure costs are kept low and will provide the very best in risk management, technology, settlement and client service.”

Diana Chan, CEO, EuroCCP said: “The new CCP will lead the way in encouraging greater competition between all cash equity clearing houses while driving down costs. Following the launch of four-way interoperability, the industry must now consolidate in Europe to achieve economies of scale and respond to the changing needs of market participants. Combining our organisations will accomplish this.”

See more details in the press release