MNI BRIEF: Fed Finds Central Treasury Clearing Efficient

Expanded central clearing of outright Treasuries trades would have lowered dealers' daily gross settlement obligations by roughly USD330 billion or 60% in the weeks around the market disruptions of March 2020, according to new analysis from the New York Fed using non-public TRACE data.

Settlement fails would also have been lower if trades were centrally cleared, the authors said. The estimated benefits would likely be even greater if dealers' auction purchases were included in the analysis, or if the increased central clearing included repo transactions.

MNI has reported that the Fed is pushing for wider clearing of Treasuries to help dealers provide liquidity during market volatility.