CLS Bank & the World of FX Settlement

Starting my career as a trader on Wall Street, one of the big mysteries I had, was just how all these trades on the NYSE got executed and reported. Within the maze of specialist booths and flying paper, trades were being crossed and buyers and sellers were recognized. While the occasional errors occur, the wild system is highly efficient at reporting and settling trades.

In the world of OTC, settlement represents a larger factor, as participants are not bound by a central exchange system that insures against counterparty risk. As such, companies are on their own to ensure that trades are settled correctly with their counterparties, and an exchange of funds takes place.

In Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term Magnates’s Q1 2013 Industry Report, we took a look at the world of FX settlement and post-trade flow and researched CLS Bank and Traiana. We wanted to know just what they did, and how their products help FX players handle their settlement needs, create efficient markets, and lower overall transaction costs. In this first part, we focus on CLS Bank.

CLS Bank

Launched in 2002, CLS Bank was created as a private sector initiative, to deliver and operate services to mitigate settlement risk in the FX market. Owned and operated by member institutions and working alongside central banks, CLS offers members the ability to settle trades within a central location, thus, providing efficiencies to FX markets.

To understand what CLS does, it is first important to know how settlement works. Settlement is the process in which the payment and securities of a transaction are delivered. Within the securities world, this occurs in a three day window. For example, if a trader buys 100 shares of IBM stock at $100/share, the broker has three days to collect the $10,000 from the client, transfer it to the seller, and collect the shares back for the client.

Within FX, settlement does not involve securities, but instead different currencies. Therefore, in a EUR/USD trade, the seller sends dollars while receiving euros. For OTC participants, one of the greatest worries is settlement risk, which occurs when a counterparty is unable or unwilling to provide either the payment or transfer of securities.

While a deal between two parties can easily be voided, thus limiting impact of a problematic counterparty, the greater concern is the systemic risk. As traders are simultaneously trading with multiple parties, if one party fails to honor a transaction, it can affect counterparties and could prevent them from having the funds and/or securities to settle other trades.

Jake Smith, Head of Communications at CLS, explained that “FX settlement risk is also known as ‘Herstatt Risk’ ”. The name is derived from the failure of a privately owned German bank in 1974. At the time, Bankhaus Herstatt had received delivery of Deutsche marks from US counterparty banks, but had been put into receivership before the corresponding dollars were sent, due to the time zone difference.” Smith explained that, while this occurred nearly 40 years ago, “due to volumes growing substantially since that time, settlement risk has grown significantly.”

To mitigate this risk, CLS was created. Currently, there are over 60 members, who represent some of the largest financial institutions from around the world. CLS provides a central settlement network for FX transactions between its members and their customers. To facilitate settlement, all members are required to have a single multi-currency account with CLS, supporting the 17 currencies that are settled by its system.

Settlement

After conducting a trade, members send transactional details to CLS Bank, including trade details, counterparties, and settlement data. On the day of settlement, CLS Bank multilaterally nets all the instructions between the settlement members, calculating each institution’s pay-in obligations for the day, to ensure settlement of all their instructions on a payment-versus- payment basis. As settlement completes, pay-out of multi-laterally netted long balances will occur.

Example: GBP/USD = 1.50, EUR/USD = 1.25

Member 1: Buys 1,000,000 GBP/USD from Member 2

Member 2: Buys 1,000,000 EUR/USD from Member 3

Member 3: Buys 1,000,000 GBP/USD from Member 1

Member 1: Owes 1.5M USD & 1M GBP, collects 1.5M USD & 1M GBP

Member 2: Owes 1.25M USD & 1M GBP, collects 1M EUR & 1.5 USD

Member 3: Owes 1.5M USD & 1M EUR, collects 1.25M USD & 1M GBP

CLS then multi-laterally nets the total obligations:

Member 1: Pays 0.0

Member 2: Pays 1M GBP

Member 3: Pays 0.25M USD & 1M EUR

These obligations are funded into each member’s respective multi-currency account.

Settlement occurs

CLS then redistributes the obligations to the corresponding members

Member 1: Receives 0.0

Member 2: Receives 1M EUR & 0.25M USD

Member 3: Receives 1M GBP

By multi-laterally netting (also known as trade compression) payment obligations for each currency, CLS eliminates the need to fund trades on an individual basis per currency, resulting in approximately 96% netting efficiency. This increases to 99% with In/Out Swaps Swaps Swaps can be defined as a derivate contact composed of two parties that exchange to cash flow between two separate financial instruments.They are generally divided into two categories. This includes contingent claims (options) and forward claims, where forward contracts, swaps, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are exchanged. Commodity price, equity price, interest rate, and foreign exchange rate are common variables used as one of the cash flows in swaps upon initiation. Different Types of Swaps Swaps can be defined as a derivate contact composed of two parties that exchange to cash flow between two separate financial instruments.They are generally divided into two categories. This includes contingent claims (options) and forward claims, where forward contracts, swaps, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are exchanged. Commodity price, equity price, interest rate, and foreign exchange rate are common variables used as one of the cash flows in swaps upon initiation. Different Types of Swaps Read this Term (an In/Out Swap is an intraday swap consisting of two equal and opposite FX transactions.)

That means, that for every $1 trillion of In/Out swaps settled, members need to provide funding for less than $10 billion, and $40 million for spot FX. With CLS handling nearly $5 trillion worth of daily settlements, the netting rates are a key element in allowing firms to grow their transactional volumes, while substantially reducing the amount of funding required. According to Smith, “CLS believes this safer and efficient process is one of the factors that led to the increase in FX volumes over the last 10 years.”

Industry Benefits

Smith explained that CLS provides a number of benefits to the FX industry, including, settlement risk mitigation, multi-lateral netting, operational and IT efficiencies, business growth opportunities, and the ability to develop industry solutions best practices, common standards and rules that benefit the FX market.

Within settlement risk mitigation also comes credit recognition. By being CLS members, credit departments have a greater understanding of each other and the counterparty risk. This allows firms to allocate less risk between trades to other members. For example, while a bank may decide to trade up to $10 billion with another member, they are more likely to limit their trade exposure to non-members.

In terms of operational efficiencies, a key factor is with regard to CLS’s one rule and oversight committee. Having one set of guidelines for members and central banks, provides all participants with a clearer understanding of their counterparties. When adding a new currency, the corresponding central bank needs to follow the standardized guidelines. These rules provide protection for members who benefit from the increased transparency a participating central bank will need to follow.

Regulatory Recognition

In July 2012, the critical role that CLS plays in global financial markets was recognised by the US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Stability Oversight Council, when it designated CLS as a systemically important Financial Market Utility (FMU). CLS’s importance was highlighted further in November 2012, with the announcement of the US Treasury Department’s exemption of FX swaps and forwards from the clearing requirements required for many financial products under the Dodd-Frank legislation. The role that CLS plays in the mitigation of FX settlement risk was believed to be a contributing factor towards that decision.

Technology

CLS’s increased investment in technology, has enabled it to materially expand peak capacity as it updated core technologies, to meet the elevated standards required of a systemically important FMU. The result is that CLS can now accommodate trade matching volumes of up to five times the average daily volume, and process 20 per cent of a peak day’s volume in a one hour period.

Furthermore, CLS has put in place a flexible technology infrastructure, which enables “capacity on demand”, supporting future software upgrades to be delivered to increase capacity in a matter of days and weeks. This structure, allows CLS to pay for technology only when required, while fulfilling obligations to the market to settle all eligible FX settlement instructions.

The need to build capacity was demonstrated on January 22, 2013, when CLS settled more than 2.6 million instructions, 18 per cent more than the previous high, recorded on 19 September, 2012.

Future

Looking to the future, as emerging markets grow, CLS has received interest from settlement members to include additional currencies. As such, CLS has been evaluating the addition of the Brazilian real, Chilean peso, Chinese renminbi, Russian ruble and Thai baht, amongst others.

Another area where CLS is extending its services is in same day settlement. A significant percentage of USD/CAD trades are intra-day and are not currently included in CLS settlement, due to the time of day. CLS is developing a same day settlement service between US and Canadian dollars to address this settlement risk, which has a proposed launch date in late 2013.

The CAD was chosen as the US, Canadian, and Mexican central banks share similar hours, and would be able to manage a same day settlement process between them. Based on the results, the CLS Bank plans to launch similar regional same day settlement activities in Europe.

Finally, one of the main challenges CLS faces over the next year, is to define new categories of membership, including providing settlement services for cleared FX. To date, CLS has had constructive conversations with CCPs to identify ways in which it might be able to work together in the future, by providing direct Membership.