Central Clearing of OTC Derivatives: Bilateral vs Multilateral Netting

20 Pages Posted: 14 Mar 2013

See all articles by Rama Cont

Rama Cont

University of Oxford

Thomas Kokholm

School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 1, 2012

Abstract

We study the impact of central clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) transactions on counterparty exposures in a market with OTC transactions across several asset classes with heterogeneous characteristics. The impact of introducing a central counterparty (CCP) on expected interdealer exposure is determined by the tradeoff between multilateral netting across dealers on one hand and bilateral netting across asset classes on the other hand. We find this tradeoff to be sensitive to assumptions on heterogeneity of asset classes in terms of 'riskiness' of the asset class as well as correlation of exposures across asset classes.

In particular, while an analysis assuming independent, homogeneous exposures suggests that central clearing is efficient only if one has an unrealistically high number of participants, the opposite conclusion is reached if differences in riskyness and correlation across asset classes are realistically taken into account. We argue that empirically plausible specifications of model parameters lead to the conclusion that central clearing does reduce interdealer exposures: the gain from multilateral netting in a CCP overweighs the loss of netting across asset classes in bilateral netting agreements. When a CCP exists for interest rate derivatives, adding a CCP for credit derivatives is shown to decrease overall exposures. These findings are shown to be robust to the statistical assumptions of the model as well as the choice of risk measure used to quantify exposures.

Keywords: central clearing, OTC markets, derivatives, CCP, counterparty risk, Dodd-Frank Act

JEL Classification: G28, G24, G18

Suggested Citation

Cont, Rama and Kokholm, Thomas, Central Clearing of OTC Derivatives: Bilateral vs Multilateral Netting (September 1, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2233665 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2233665

Rama Cont (Contact Author)

University of Oxford ( email )

Mathematical Institute
Oxford, OX2 6GG
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/rama.cont

Thomas Kokholm

School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University ( email )

Fuglesangs Allé 4
Aarhus, DK-8210
Denmark

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,401
Abstract Views
8,806
Rank
22,400
PlumX Metrics