ANALYSIS: ICE to ramp up testing of US Treasury clearing in September
30th July, 2025|Luke Jeffs
ICE plans to ramp up testing of its US Treasury clearing service to include clients over the next three months after having started internal testing of the new offering.
Paul Hamill, the chief commercial officer of ICE Clear Credit, told FOW the US group is developing the operational readiness of the new clearing platform alongside its application for regulatory approval.
“In parallel to the regulatory approval process, we have been working with our clients, FCMs (futures commission merchants) and partners over the last 18 months to design the finer points of the solution. We are now testing ourselves through our bond trading platform ICE Bonds to replicate external workflows into Treasury clearing.”
ICE plans to launch next year a US Treasury bond clearing service ahead of the December 2026 introduction of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandate to force firms to start clearing these products.
Hamill added: “Through September and October, we plan to extend testing to include FCMs, trading venues, middleware providers, clients and other broader market participants who will externally test with us on the workflows.”
The Atlanta-based group is building the new clearing service within ICE Clear Credit, the SEC-regulated clearing house that dominates US credit default swaps (CDS).
Hamill said: “One of our advantages is we already have a SEC-registered CCA within ICE Clear Credit and we are working with the SEC to extend our CCA status to cover US Treasuries. Once that process is complete, we expect our application to be published and available for public review.”
ICE Clear Credit is one of six Covered Clearing Agencies (CCAs) recognised by the SEC.
ICE’s choice of ICE Clear Credit to host the new service (as opposed to one of its other US clearing houses) is important as the US group sees the opportunity to deploy standard CDS practices in US Treasury clearing.
“We’re trying to bring swaps-style clearing to the Treasury market which is not how clearing in the Treasury market works today, and we believe there are improvements that could come from an approach that looks more like how we clear swaps today,” Hamill said.
The chief commercial officer added ICE hopes to achieve regulatory approval “by the end of this year”.
ICE’s move into US Treasury clearing will see the US group competing in an increasingly congested space. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is the incumbent while CME Group and LCH are also looking to launch US Treasury clearing services.
Similarly, LCH is exploring the possibility of delivering margin reductions by offsetting US Treasury bonds against its own book of US interest rate swaps.
ICE, by contrast, is not promising margin offsets. Hamill said: “Cross-margining across products like swaps, futures and cash is appealing to some firms. It is, however, complicated to implement, particularly when the clearing houses are under two different regulatory regimes.
“While we can see conceptually what the appeal is, we intend to continue to focus on a best-in-class Treasury clearing solution while watching how this evolves. If there is something important for us to compete with, then we will find a way to compete.”
The US Treasury clearing mandate was delayed by 12 months in February to December 2026 from December this year amid pressure from the industry.
With the SEC in flux as the new US government introduces its picks to run the main US securities watchdog, there is speculation the US Treasury mandate might be delayed for a second time, but Hamill is sceptical.
“We have not heard anything on the regulatory side to suggest appetite for further delays,” he said. “Many people believe the delay that was granted was absolutely necessary but, when we talk to clients and partners today, there is a desire to move forward with the infrastructure build, get live and start testing the solutions ahead of the mandate.”
