CME Group’s credit default swap joint venture with Citadel Investment Group will now only be a clearing service, having previously been planned as a CDS trading and clearing platform.

As part of its refocus, CME has issued shares in the venture to investment firms AllianceBernstein, BlackRock, BlueMountain Capital Management, the DE Shaw group and Pimco. The exchange said several leading sell side firms were in the process of becoming founding members.

“Our solution offers point of execution clearing of CDS trades, the greatest breadth of products to clear which includes single name CDS, a comprehensive and transparent risk management system, the security of our approximately $8bn financial safeguards package, and an established regulatory framework to protect customer positions and offer margining efficiencies,” said Craig Donohue, CME’s chief executive, in a statement.

The exchange’s chairman Terry Duffy said: “Both buy side and sell side participants have expressed an interest in continuing to execute their CDS transactions the same as they do today, but with the added benefit of central counterparty clearing.”