Clearing and settling trades, managing collateral, and selling information, including the increasingly sophisticated indices to which investments worth trillions of dollars are pegged, is the name of the game these days for many exchanges.
The measure to protect swap traders' collateral used in trades to reduce risk was approved by a 4-1 vote.
As a clearinghouse Nasdaq will sit between buyers and sellers, accounting for their trades and holding collateral to make sure those trades settle.
One possible result of all of this is that there will be less derivatives trading and more collateral going back and forth.
As in all trade wars, the collateral damage is costly.
In this business, too, Dexia's problems have been worsened by aggressive demands by some trading partners for additional collateral.
The ratings are important because if they fall, A.I.G.'s trading partners can demand collateral on their contracts — precisely the situation that led to the global crisis last fall.
While the company is still current on its $235 million in bank loans, securities backed by those loans as collateral are trading at about 30 cents on the dollar, down from 70 cents a few years ago, traders in distressed debt say.
From Monday, RBS will charge interest to about 70 customers, such as banks and pension funds, on the cash they place with the state-controlled bank as collateral for trading complex financial products.
Even so, from Monday, about 70 RBS customers will start to receive negative rates because they will charged for any cash they place as collateral for trading in complex financial products, such as futures or options.
