The Collateral Costs of Clearing
Summary
In this working paper, we study the three generic clearing arrangements in the presence of two-sided limited commitment: simple bilateral clearing, segregated collateral clearing through a third party, and - most sophisticated of all - central counterparty (CCP) clearing. Clearing secures the settlement of obligations from over-the-counter (OTC) forward contracts that smooth the income of risk-averse agents. Clearing requires collateral to guarantee settlement; this is costly, as it reduces income from investment. While welfare is greater under more sophisticated clearing arrangements, we find that these are also more demanding in terms of collateral.
- Issue:
- 04
- Pages:
- 49
- JEL classification:
- G13, G14, G18, G2, G28, D53, D82
- Keywords:
- clearing, central counterparty, segregation, novation, mutualization
- Year:
- 2014