Elixium, a regulated Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) for collateral and secured deposits, announces the execution of its first collateral financing transaction between buy-side collateral and liquidity providers. 

 

Citibank, as cash management agent, executed on behalf of CME Clearing Europe, while Insight Investment executed on behalf of a UK Pension Fund. The trade took place on Thursday 6 October.

 

Elixium is designed to specifically address the impact of regulation, balance sheet pressures, and deteriorating levels of liquidity in the repo market by providing participants with collateralised liquidity on a fair, transparent, low-cost and equitable basis. It was created in response to the market requirement for an all-to-all marketplace in collateral and secured deposits.

 

Elixium enables institutions to gain standardised access to a diverse range of high-quality liquid assets that can be traded as collateral, on an all-to-all basis, and supports pre-trade bi-lateral anonymity.

 

CME Clearing Europe is the first Central Counterparty (CCP) to trade collateral on the platform, and Elixium assists CME Clearing Europe with transparency and best price execution for its cash collateral investments. 

 

Insight Investment, which executed the trade on behalf of a UK Pension Fund, also benefits from a wider pool of counterparties and the enhanced liquidity on the Elixium platform.

 

Nick McCall, CEO of Elixium, comments: "I am delighted to announce that our first trade has been completed on Elixium with innovative and forward-thinking global market collaborators. Due to a historical lack of direct counterparty access for non-bank participants, a trade between a CCP and an asset manager or pension fund would have previously been highly inefficient and costly to facilitate. The completion of our first trade demonstrates the rate of change in the repo market and the benefits of facilitating electronic all-to-all collateral trading in a regulated environment.”

 

Tina Hasenpusch, CEO of CME Clearing Europe, says, “We are pleased to have transacted the first trade on Elixium. CME Clearing Europe will use this platform as part of our commitment to working with the buy-side to manage their liquidity challenges, including the requirement to generate cash for variation margin. Peer-to-peer solutions will help meet those challenges and the need to ensure that CME Clearing Europe has access to a diverse set of repo counterparties.”

 

Mark Stancombe, Head of Corporate and Product Strategy, Insight Investment, says, “There is a clear need for solutions which can bring greater liquidity and price transparency to core investment markets. Insight actively researches new initiatives which have the potential to benefit clients and we have been paying close attention to recent innovations, of which Elixium is a notable example.”

 

Elixium continues to on-board a diverse network of buy- and sell-side firms.