OTC Market Reforms in Asia: Presenting New Opportunities

In another blog we discussed the issues that will have serious implications for different market participants in the OTC derivative market reform process in Asia. Here we look at its impact on different market participants. The move towards central clearing is likely to create more demand for clearing services. Currently a small number of brokers offer clearing service in this space, and they may not be able to handle the sudden rise in demand. Some of the major international clearing firms are in the process of scaling up their operations in the region. Even though the volumes in the OTC segment are low at present, the growth prospects of the Asian economies in general, and niche areas (e.g., NDF clearing) make the region strategically important for many of these firms. However, some participants are wary about the costs of having to join many clearing houses and the issue of assuming unlimited liability in case of default. International banks have significant share in the OTC derivatives space in Asia; if these issues are not sorted out, some western banks may withdraw from some markets, or even the whole region, which would likely have an adverse impact on liquidity. Regulations mandating central clearing will create business opportunities for centralized clearing. In some markets like Singapore, the incumbent exchanges are taking a leading role in this regard. It will be interesting to see if new players will be able to enter and succeed in this business. Low volumes in the Asian markets, proliferation of CCPs and competition from international ones may result in each CCP specializing in specific niches along product lines or local currency instruments. The business models of new CCPs will come under heavy scrutiny from regulators, breaking trends from the past. As large number of OTC trades move to the CCPs, the concentration risk at some of them would be significant and national regulators would want to make sure those risks are adequately managed on a continuous basis. As CCPs replace bilateral trading, and market participants face the choice of executing trades at different CCPs, they will also need tools for managing and optimizing the use of collateral. This represents an opportunity for some market players who specialize in providing collateral management solutions. Needless to say, the kind of solutions needed and offered in this space will depend largely on the maturity of specific markets and market participants. Thus, while Credit Support Annexes (CSAs) may be sufficient for emerging countries of the region, advanced services (like collateral transformation, outsourcing of collateral management) would gain traction in the leading countries like Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Reporting banks would come under greater regulatory scrutiny and will have to run stress tests and ensure capital requirements on an ongoing basis.