United Overseas Bank (UOB) has joined LCH SwapClear and LCH ForexClear as a direct clearing member. According to UOB, the bank is the first in Southeast Asia to join ForexClear as a direct member.
The bank’s inclusion marks the completion of all Singapore local banking groups joining as direct members of SwapClear. UOB will also be the first member globally to join both clearing services simultaneously.
“We are delighted to welcome UOB as a member of our SwapClear and ForexClear services, which is a testament to the vibrant banking landscape in Asia Pacific (APAC) and more specifically, Singapore. APAC is a key strategic market and growth driver for LCH, and we are committed to enabling our members to benefit from economies of scale, along with margin, capital, and operational efficiencies that our services deliver. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with UOB as it looks to increase its clearing activity and benefit from LCH’s innovative solutions and diverse set of products available,” says Isabelle Girolami, CEO of LCH.
“We are proud to be the first member globally to concurrently join LCH SwapClear and ForexClear. More importantly, we are the first ForexClear member in Southeast Asia as we seek to contribute to the growth of Asean. Our partnership with LCH will enable us to unlock further liquidity across multiple asset classes, particularly as regulations have placed greater financial resource requirements across our portfolios. We will also benefit from LCH’s world class risk management solutions and the capital and margin efficiencies that it will enable across our rates and FX clearing activity,” says Leslie Foo, group head of global markets at UOB.
Since 2021, SwapClear has recorded an 80% growth in APAC currencies or currency pairs notional cleared while ForexClear has recorded 14% growth in notional cleared.
Shares in UOB closed 20 cents lower or 0.71% down at $28.07 on Oct 4.
