Top five US swaps clearers have 73% of the business

Total domination by the top firms, diverging ambitions, shrinking excess collateral – a full year’s data is now available on US client clearing businesses, and it reveals some worrying trends

The over-the-counter derivatives clearing business is maturing – 2014 was the first full year in which the US mandate was in place – but the data suggests there is still some way to go.

In some ways, not a lot changed – the 10 futures commission merchants (FCMs) that started the year with the biggest share of the business, as measured by client margin, also finished the year as part of that group. In total, they had 94.9% of the margin total on January 30, and 96.4% on December 30, according to