On the latest episode of the Open Order Podcast, DerivSource Senior Writer Lynn Strongin Dodds spoke to Yama Darriet, Head of OTC and Repo Expansion at Euronext, about current trends in and the future of repo clearing in Europe.
Repo clearing is on the rise in Europe, and in fact, ICMA’s 50th European Repo Market Survey shows that Europe increased faster than the US. What are the drivers behind this move?
The market is definitely growing. As you mentioned ICMA’s latest survey shows it reached a record €13.6 trn in December 2025 which is up almost 10% versus June 25 and 24 year on year. There is also a much stronger resilience and market structure argument today. The ECB (European Central Bank) has highlighted the growing role of non-bank financial intermediaries (NBFIs) in European government bond repo markets. Finally, the access to repo clearing is improving which is critical. Cleared repo is no longer only a dealer-to-dealer model but is increasingly about broadening participation.
What is Euronext doing?
We’re expanding repo clearing to support market access, liquidity provision, and collateral optimisation across Europe. This opens the door to models such as sponsored access, which can extend the advantages of repo clearing to buy-side firms in a much more practical and scalable way.
The US and Europe are always being compared but what are the differences?
In the US, repo clearing is built around a much more unified market structure. There is one dominant collateral base – US treasuries, one domestic currency, and the FICC (Fixed Income Clearing Corp) is the central clearing hub for Treasury repo. It is already well established and widely used with a sponsored model to connect non-dealers into the cleared market. The picture in Europe is structurally more complex. The repo market is highly sophisticated, but it still operates across multiple sovereign issues, settlement locations, legal frameworks, and collateral curves.
Against that background, how is European market infrastructure changing to become more harmonised?
Over the past two to three years, clearinghouses have expanded coverage across additional sovereign and bond markets. They are also allowing participants to clear transactions across a wider set of collateral within a single risk and margin framework. Another key evolution is the broadening of models, such as the sponsored access model. At Euronext clearing, for example, this is part of a broader repo expansion initiative, and we are really aiming at widening participation and improving operational efficiency.
How can the buy side access repo clearing and which ones are voluntarily making the move?
We are seeing interest from a wide range of institutions including asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, insurance companies, and particularly those already active in repo markets. They are all looking to improve the efficiency of their funding strategies. Buy-side firms will be able to onboard either directly via our sponsored access model or indirectly through a general clearing member.
What are some of the pros and cons of sponsored access?
The big advantage of sponsored clearing is that it allows buy-side firms to access cleared repo without having to take on the full burden of direct membership, while still benefiting from the safety, efficiency, and liquidity advantage of central clearing. The downside is that it is still an intermediary model. Buy-side firms depend on the sponsor, its balance sheet, operating model, and its willingness to scale. It is a very strong solution, but only if the sponsored access model is designed in a way that is efficient enough for clients and sustainable enough for sponsors.
Looking ahead, what other market developments do you think will impact reboot clearing in Europe?
The first one that we have mentioned again and again is that this is a growing market. It is also expanding buy-side access and there is growing competition between clearing houses. This will drive innovation, keep pricing honest, and force each of us to genuinely earn client businesses. And that is exactly what is happening in European repo right now.
Overall, repo will be shaped by four forces – market growth, broader clearing access, collateral efficiency and post-trade transformation. Ultimately, the objective is not simply to increase the volume of cared repo, but to build a market structure that is more efficient, resilient, and better equipped to support the growing role of repo financing in European capital markets.
