This report provides clearing brokers seeking to take an OTC derivatives clearing brokerage service offering to market in Asia-Pacific with a guide that highlights the criteria buyside firms in the region look for in such an offering. Sellside understanding of such criteria is important because the Asia-Pacific market for OTC derivatives trading will grow in size and value in the future, and it is reasonable to expect that buyside firms beyond the market incumbents will seek to comply with EU and US central clearing mandates.
The report found – through a series of interviews with sellside clearing brokers in Asia-Pacific – the majority of buyside firms in the region are unprepared for the future complexity of EU and US OTC derivatives central clearing regulations that will be imposed on them. While these regulations already exist in some Asia-Pacific countries, the central clearing regulatory landscape across the region is fragmented, and no one set of existing rules in an Asia-Pacific country matches the scope of EU or US central clearing mandates.
Despite differences between the levels of OTC derivatives central clearing regulations from one Asia-Pacific country to the next as well as between the region as a whole and the EU and US, buyside firms seeking clearing brokerage services in Asia-Pacific already view the provision of value-added service offerings as essential for investment banks to win their business. For example, the results of a survey of buyside firms, sellside banks and technology vendors in Asia-Pacific found that real-time limit dashboards and ‘what-if?’ scenario modelling tools that slowly became essential for winning business among EU and US buyside clients are crucial to winning market share in the region.
