CME and GSCC team to offer eurodollar futures cross-margining

Clearing members of both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Government Securities Clearing Corporation (GSCC) can start cross-margining buy-sell and repo US government securities against eurodollar futures and options from April 12.

The strong correlation between US government securities positions and eurodollar futures and options should allow members to significantly reduce overall margin capital."We anticipate that this arrangement will generate savings for our clearing members, while mitigating risk at both clearing organisations," said CME managing director for risk management Kim Taylor.

A total of 184 million eurodollar futures were traded on the CME last year, while 88.2 million options on eurodollar futures also changed hands.

Minimum back-office work is required for the new service as cross-margining of positions will take place automatically, said Taylor.

The GSCC is a unit of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which handles $1.7 trillion worth of trades per day.