B3 (the Brazilian exchange and clearinghouse) successfully launched on Monday the equities, corporate bonds, and equities lending markets on its new multi-asset clearing platform.
The clearing solution is delivered by Cinnober, built on its TRADExpress RealTime Clearing system.
The migration of the equities clearinghouse was the target for phase two of B3’s Post-Trade Integration Project that will consolidate B3’s originally four clearinghouses into one integrated entity (managing equities, derivatives, government and corporate debt securities and FX). Derivatives and OTC products were the first to launch on the new platform in phase one.
With the new integrated clearinghouse, B3 manages risk more efficiently. By analyzing the risk on entire portfolios, the clearinghouse can compensate if an investor has opposite positions in the same underlying asset across product groups and markets. When financial and commodity derivatives, along with OTC products, migrated to the new clearinghouse in phase one, the total systemic benefit in terms of margin release amounted to around BRL 20 billion.
The estimated effect from Monday’s launch of phase two is BRL 21 billion of collateral that was returned to the market with complete preservation of the clearinghouse’s safety system.
Other benefits to market participants from consolidating operating processes, rules, and settlement windows in the merged infrastructure include lower operational costs, cash management optimization, and improved capacity.
“With that launch, Brazil’s financial and capital markets are obtaining new levels of operating excellence,” says Cícero Augusto Vieira Neto, Chief Operating Officer of B3. “By integrating the markets in a single clearinghouse, using a real-time clearing solution we’re able to offer more capital efficient post-trade services, improve daily liquidity, and reduce operating costs. With an infrastructure capable of absorbing ever larger volumes, B3 has paved the way for further market growth, and the system’s flexibility lets us respond quickly to the market’s needs.”
B3 currently handles one million transactions per day on average on its exchange, with peaks of up to three million transactions per day. The new clearing platform has initial capacity to manage 10 million transactions per day.
“This is a great milestone in a globally pioneering project,” says Veronica Augustsson, CEO of Cinnober. “We’re proud to have this monumental role in B3’s post-trade integration project, bringing so much value to the market. Our real-time, multi-asset technology builds safer markets where the participants are kept informed of risk and margin requirements throughout the day. This gives markets that are more efficient, enabling less collateral to be tied up from investors.”
TRADExpress RealTime Clearing from Cinnober enables clearinghouses to manage clearing and monitor risk in real time across multiple markets, both OTC and exchange-traded. The solution has proven itself at several high-profile clearinghouses globally — enabling margin and settlement savings for their clients, and offering improved risk management, extreme performance, faster product development capabilities and efficient operations.