Clearing has emerged in the post-crisis financial market as the key battleground for modern exchanges and a clearing house is now seen by many markets as a crucial strategic asset.

The LME became in September the latest exchange to take control of the clearing of its own trades, when it moved all of its open metals positions from LCH.Clearnet to LME Clear.

Trevor Spanner, the chief executive of LME Clear, said the process went well, largely because it had been meticulously planned.

He also said LME Clear will be crucial to the LME and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing as the partners look to branch out aggressively into commodities in Asia.

Another recent development has been the emergence of specific segregated accounts to answer some of the issues that emerged after the collapse of Lehman in 2008 and MF Global in 2011.

Exchanges have taken slightly different approaches to the concept of a separately managed account while the US and Europe also have their own separate interpretations.

Cross-margining is another relatively new development, at least in Europe where Eurex Clearing became in May the first exchange to launch this service.

Take-up has been relatively slow however, partly because Europe decided to postpone the implementation of mandatory clearing until 2016, much to the annoyance of Eurex management.

Cross-margining will take off but it is a question of when?

Lastly, this FOW Clearing Supplement looks at a new generation of firms that are seeking to provide solutions to some of the challenges posed by the new regulatory framework.

Click here to access the FOW Clearing Supplement.