LCH.Clearnet has received approval from the UK Financial Services Authority to extend its interest rate swap clearing service, SwapClear.

Buy-side firms can now access the service through clearing members based in Ireland and Switzerland.

The extension means that institutional investors are able to clear through members based in six countries: the US, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland.

LCH.Clearnet is regulated in the UK by the FSA and in the US by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Its SwapClear service offers protection to buy-side clients in the event of a default of a clearing member, through margin segregation and portability of contracts.

Alberto Pravettoni, managing director, commercial services, says: “We have over ten years experience of successfully clearing IRS and are the only clearing house to have managed an OTC default. Recently, we have seen a remarkable growth in demand for our SwapClear service and this latest development broadens the number of clearing members through which the buy-side are able to access the benefits of IRS clearing.”

SwapClear currently clears approximately 40 per cent of the global interest rate swap market and has USD212trn in notional trades outstanding.