Clearing House Advisory Notices
To Clearing Member Firms
From CME Clearing
Subject CME Cleared Interest-Rate Swaps to Launch on September 2, 2008.
Notice Date 2008-08-26
Notice Number 08-197
Effective Date 2008-09-02
On September 2, 2008, CME will begin clearing privately-negotiated trades in CME Cleared Interest-Rate Swaps, also known as CME Swaps on Swapstream. These products will first be present in CME’s production SPAN files on this date.
 
At launch, there will be two “standard forward” swaps contracts available:  USD3L – USD-denominated IMM-dated contracts on 3-month LIBOR, and EUR6E – EUR-denominated IMM-dated contracts on 6-month EURIBOR. Maturities going out ten years will be eligible for clearing at launch, and this will be later expanded to thirty years. 
 
We refer to these as “standard forward” swap contracts because (a) they are standard fixed versus floating interest-rate swaps, (b) start and end dates are standardized on IMM dates, so that associated LIBOR fixing dates occur typically on the Monday prior to the third Wednesday of the month, and precisely match those of CME Eurodollar futures, and (c) you’re always trading a forward-starting contract. When the start date of each contract arrives, the initial coupon is stripped and the contract “rolls” to the next shortest maturity. For example, when the first fixing date arrives for the ten-year forward-starting USD3L swap, it rolls and becomes a nine-and-three-quarter year forward-starting swap, with an adjustment to the start-of-day price to take into account the monetary impact of this roll.
 
Also available at launch there will be two “overnight index” swaps:  USDDF – USD-denominated contracts on the daily Fed Funds rate, and EUREO – EUR-denominated contracts on the daily EONIA rate. These are spot-starting contracts which terminate on an upcoming IMM date, matching the start date for a standard forward contract. The overnight index swaps are similar to the standard forward swaps except that they roll every day, rather than only on monthly IMM dates. At launch there will be overnight index swaps with monthly maturities going out one year.
 
 
For more information, please see :
 
 

 

 

 
Or contact :
·         In North America:
Swapstream 212-851-8296 or
             Steve Dayon 312-466-4447
             Ron Peterson 212-897-5285
             Pete Barker 312-930-8554  
             Elizabeth Flores 312-338-2801
·         In Europe:
Robert Hammond 44-207-796-7100
Jeremy Solle 44 207-796-7209
Andrew Moreton 44 207-796-7214
Kim Short 44 207-796-7213
Paul Skipp 44 207-796-7219
 
Or call: CME Clearing at 312-207-2525.