INTERNATIONAL: Nasdaq Nordic to Introduce Competitive Clearing on the Nordic Cash Equity Markets

Tuesday October 13 2015

Nasdaq Nordic intends to provide a choice of CCP providers in Nordic cash equities for its members on the Nasdaq exchanges in Stockholm, Helsinki and Copenhagen.

Nasdaq Nordic will introduce LCH.Clearnet Ltd (LCH) and SIX x-clear AG (x-clear) as additional cash equity CCP providers. Both CCPs will become interoperable with the existing CCP, European Central Counterparty N.V. (EuroCCP) as well as with one another.

Instruments within interoperable clearing are all the current CCP eligible equity and ETF instruments.

Protocol specifications

Introduction of competitive clearing with additional CCPs does not result in any changes in INET protocol specifications.

Member testing

Testing in INET OTF is performed at members’ discretion, but is recommended for members who choose to migrate to LCH or x-clear.

• LCH: as of October 26, 2015.
• x-clear: from January – February 2016 onwards.

Tentative launch schedule in INET PROD

• LCH: go-live November 23, 2015.
• x-clear: go-live March 29, 2016.

Introduction of competitive clearing by adding LCH and x-clear as CCP providers in Nordic cash equities is subject to regulatory approvals or consent in the jurisdictions affected and for the parties involved, including the necessary regulatory consent or approvals from the regulators of Nasdaq Nordic exchanges.

Click on the link above for further details.