Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) today announced it has completed the cessation of credit default swap (CDS) clearing at ICE Clear Europe.

ICE Clear Europe announced in June 2022 that it would cease offering clearing services for CDS instruments and work with Clearing Members and their Clients to close-out their positions at ICE Clear Europe and re-establish over $400 billion of open interest at alternate clearing houses.

“As in all the markets we serve, maintaining close relationships with our customers and helping them manage risk as effectively as possible are key priorities for us,” said Hester Serafini, President of ICE Clear Europe. “We’re pleased to have completed this process in an orderly and efficient manner, and to have worked with market participants across the industry to ensure our customers’ positions were re-established at the alternate clearing house of their choice.”

The close-out of open interest was completed last week after the final positions at ICE Clear Europe were re-established at ICE Clear Credit. In support of the process, ICE Link developed a new service used by Clearing Members and Clients to close out and re-establish approximately $75 billion of open interest. ICE Link is a CDS post-trade affirmation platform providing bilateral and clearing workflows to an unparalleled network of buy-side and sell-side market participants.

“We developed an innovative and efficient matching algorithm that facilitated, in just over three months, the close-out of the vast majority of all House and Client positions remaining at ICE Clear Europe at the start of July. Over 90% of the remaining notional amount at that time was captured in just three cycles, with eight cycles overall,” said Ian Springle, Head of ICE Link. “Total capital savings to the industry resulting from the migration is estimated to be in the vicinity of $5 billion. Our thanks go to all Clearing Members and Clients for their collaboration in executing the process in a coordinated and disciplined fashion.”

During the ICE Link cycles, over 30,000 position records were processed, with a combined notional amount of approximately $475 billion.