Rhodes to rejoin ICE as COO of UK clearing house

Chris Rhodes, the former global head of financial derivatives at Intercontinental Exchange, is to rejoin the US exchange group as chief operating officer of ICE Clear Europe subject to regulatory approval.

Rhodes, who left ICE in the middle of 2019 to become chief risk officer at prop trading firm Tyler Capital, is to rejoin the exchange early next year as the COO of the London-based clearing house, reporting to ICE Clear Europe president Hester Serafini.

As the prospective COO of a UK-based clearing house, Rhodes’ appointment is at the time of writing subject to approval from the Bank of England, the British clearing regulator.

ICE confirmed the plan.

Rhodes joined ICE in February 2016 as head of interest rates from Arc Derivatives before being promoted to global head of financial derivatives across ICE Futures Europe and ICE Futures US in May 2018.

When he left the exchange for Tyler, Rhodes was replaced in July 2019 as ICE’s global head of financial derivatives by Steve Hamilton, formerly of crypto start-up Archax and LSE Group rates venue Curve Global, who remains in that role.

Hamilton and ICE has enjoyed recent success in interest rate futures and options that reference the UK risk-free rate SONIA.

Open interest in ICE three-month SONIA futures breached 1 million contracts for first time in late October while three-month SONIA options open interest broker 4.8 million at the end of last month, also a record.

Hamilton said at the end of last month: “SONIA is reaching new milestones on an almost daily basis on ICE, which shows the robustness of the ICE markets in providing liquidity for those users who wish to transition ahead of year end.”

ICE Clear Europe has been front page news this month after Mairead McGuinness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union, said last week she will propose an extension of UK clearing houses’ temporary equivalence to offer services to European clients.

ICE Clear Europe, LCH and LME Clear are the three London-based clearing houses at the centre of the equivalence discussion.

A group of nine trade bodies urged in September the European Commission to extend equivalence for UK clearing houses as soon as possible.

Separately, the Bank of England launched last month its first stress test of UK clearing houses, a process that will assess the robustness of ICE Clear Europe, LCH, and LME Clear.