Working Paper Revision

Central Clearing and Systemic Liquidity Risk

Abstract: By stepping between bilateral counterparties, central counterparties (CCPs) transform credit exposure, thereby improving financial stability. But, large CCPs are concentrated and interconnected with major global banks. Moreover, although they mitigate credit risk, CCPs create liquidity risks, because they require participants to provide cash. Such requirements increase with market volatility; consequently, CCP liquidity needs are inherently procyclical. This procyclicality makes it more challenging to assess CCPs’ resilience in the rare event that one or more large financial institutions default. Liquidity-focused macroprudential stress tests could help to assess and manage this systemic liquidity risk.

Keywords: Financial systems; Central counterparties; CCPs; Margin; Liquidity risk; Systemic risk; Financial stability; Procyclicality;

JEL Classification: E58; G21; G23; G28; N22;

https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2020.009r1

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Part of Series: Finance and Economics Discussion Series

Publication Date: 2022-05-06

Number: 2020-009r1

Related Works

• Working Paper Revision (2022-05-06) : You are here.
• Working Paper Original (2020-01-31) : Central Clearing and Systemic Liquidity Risk