The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation proposes an innovative Collateral-in-Lieu service to enhance margin and capital efficiency in the US Treasury market, aiming for launch by December 2025 pending regulatory approval.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation proposes an innovative Collateral-in-Lieu service to enhance margin and capital efficiency in the US Treasury market, aiming for launch by December 2025 pending regulatory approval.
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has taken a pretty important step toward improving margin and capital efficiency in the U.S. Treasury market, with a new filing from its Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) subsidiary. What they’re proposing, in this filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is a new service called the Sponsored General Collateral (GC) “Collateral-in-Lieu” service. It’s a cleared tri-party offering that’s meant to help address some pretty critical industry concerns—particularly around putting into practice the U.S. Treasury Clearing mandate. Of course, the plan still needs regulatory approval and some time for public comments, but they’re eyeing a December 2025 launch for this service.
Now, this Collateral-in-Lieu approach is quite innovative because it makes use of the haircut dealers usually post to money market funds and other cash investors during tri-party repos. It essentially uses a centrally cleared counterparty (CCP) lien "in lieu" of both a Sponsor’s guarantee of client performance and the standard posting of margin to the CCP. Honestly, this seems like a clever way to solve the well-known “double-margining” problem, where Sponsors end up needing to post margin both to money market funds and to the CCP. By reducing this duplicated effort, the new service aims to provide significant savings in capital and improve margin efficiency for market participants, which is pretty handy.
Laura Klimpel, Managing Director and Head of DTCC’s Fixed Income and Financing Solutions, pointed out that the Sponsored Service has already seen strong adoption, with over $2 trillion in daily volume flowing through it. Building on that success, the Collateral-in-Lieu proposal is designed so Sponsors and their clients can use the existing legal agreements and operational frameworks set up for Sponsored repos. The goal here is to dramatically boost margin and capital efficiencies, which is definitely a positive development.
This new proposal basically extends the existing FICC Sponsored Service, which allows qualified Netting Members to sponsor eligible entities for clearing—including the Sponsored DVP and Sponsored GC services. Those services have been quite instrumental in reducing counterparty risks, improving liquidity, and providing some relief in terms of balance sheet and capital. An important note: the Sponsored GC service supports tri-party repo transactions on BNY Mellon’s infrastructure, covering both “done-away” and “done-with” trade executions, and a wide array of collateral including U.S. Treasuries, agency debentures, and mortgage-backed securities.
Industry folks seem pretty receptive to this innovation. Nate Wuerffel, BNY Mellon’s Global Head of Market Structure and Product Leader for the Global Collateral Platform, called it “precisely the type of solution the industry needs to meet the SEC’s central clearing rule in a way that’s efficient both in terms of capital and margins.” He emphasized how leveraging BNY Mellon’s tri-party platform—remarkably, the largest Treasury tri-party repo settlement venue globally—could really streamline access and make operations more efficient, which is great news.
Since its launch, the FICC Sponsored Service has been growing steadily. It recently crossed the $750 billion mark in daily sponsored activity, with the Sponsored GC service pushing over $100 billion daily. It’s become a crucial piece in promoting market stability—more of the repo market is transitioning into cleared transactions, which helps reduce operational risks and counterparty exposure, among others.
By tackling the “double-margining” issue and aligning with regulatory mandates, FICC’s Collateral-in-Lieu service represents a pretty significant step forward in the post-trade infrastructure space. It underlines how committed market infrastructures are to supporting the robustness of the Treasury market, improving capital efficiency, and ensuring compliance with new regulations—in a constantly evolving environment, no less. Interesting, right? It’s a good example of how innovation keeps pushing the boundaries of efficiency and safety in financial markets.
Source: Noah Wire Services
Verification / Sources
- https://www.marketsmedia.com/ficc-files-to-offer-collateral-in-lieu/ - Please view link - unable to able to access data
- https://www.dtcc.com/clearing-and-settlement-services/ficc-gov/sponsored-membership - The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) offers a Sponsored Service through its Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) subsidiary. This service allows certain Netting Members to sponsor eligible legal entities into FICC/GSD Membership, enabling them to submit transactions in eligible securities for clearing. The Sponsored Service includes two offerings: Sponsored DVP service and Sponsored General Collateral (GC) service. The Sponsored GC service allows eligible clients to execute general collateral repo transactions and settle them on the tri-party repo platform of BNY Mellon. This service aims to reduce counterparty risk, provide balance sheet and capital relief opportunities, and enhance market liquidity.
- https://www.dtcc.com/news/2021/september/07/dtccs-ficc-launches-new-sponsored-general-collateral-service - DTCC's FICC launched a new Sponsored General Collateral (GC) Service, enabling Sponsoring Members and their Sponsored Member Clients to submit triparty repo transactions executed on a general collateral basis across U.S. Treasury securities, agency debentures, and agency mortgage-backed securities collateral to central clearing. The service aims to reduce operational and counterparty risk, provide balance sheet and capital relief, and increase market liquidity. The first trades were executed by BNY Mellon, Federated Hermes, and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC. The service settles on BNY Mellon's triparty repo platform, offering an operationally efficient way to clear repo transactions, including overnight and term repo transactions.
- https://www.dtcc.com/news/2023/june/14/dtccs-ficc-sponsored-service-reaches-new-milestone - DTCC's FICC Sponsored Service reached a new milestone, successfully processing over USD$750 billion in daily sponsored activity. This growth was enabled by the expansion of the service with the addition of the Sponsored General Collateral (GC) Service, which now exceeds USD$100 billion in daily activity. The Sponsored Service allows sponsoring members to facilitate the submission of their clients' trading activity in eligible securities for novation to FICC. The service aims to reduce counterparty risk, provide balance sheet and capital relief, and increase transaction capacity. FICC is committed to delivering continual advancements that increase the efficiency and resiliency of the financial system.
- https://www.dtcc.com/dtcc-connection/articles/2021/february/09/ficc-sponsored-repo-in-2021 - DTCC's FICC continues to expand the capabilities of the Sponsored Service with the new Sponsored General Collateral (GC) service. This service allows Sponsoring Members to transact repo trades with their Sponsored Members on a GC basis in tri-party. The Sponsored GC service enables overnight and term repo activity, as well as forward trade activity, and allows transacting beyond Treasuries into Agency MBS collateral. The service aims to reduce operational challenges for cash investors and provides a stabilizing effect, helping to reduce rate volatility. The Sponsored GC service is designed to build upon the success of the existing Sponsored Service and enhance risk management through broader access to central clearing.
- https://dtcclearning.com/products-and-services/fixed-income-clearing/gsd/sponsored-service.html - DTCC's FICC offers a Sponsored Service that allows certain Netting Members to sponsor eligible legal entities into FICC/GSD Membership. This service includes two offerings: Sponsored DVP service and Sponsored General Collateral (GC) service. The Sponsored GC service allows eligible clients to execute general collateral repo transactions and settle them on the tri-party repo platform of BNY Mellon. The service aims to reduce counterparty risk, provide balance sheet and capital relief, and enhance market liquidity. The Sponsored Service has made it possible to bring a larger percentage of the market into clearing while maintaining robust risk management standards.
- https://www.marketsmedia.com/ficc-files-to-offer-collateral-in-lieu/ - The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) announced that its Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) subsidiary has filed with the SEC a rule filing to enhance FICC’s Sponsored Service with a new cleared tri-party offering known as the Sponsored General Collateral (GC) “Collateral-in-Lieu” service. This service is designed to address industry concerns regarding margin and capital efficiency, aiming to ensure a smooth implementation of the U.S. Treasury Clearing mandate. The proposed service leverages the haircut typically posted by dealers to money market funds and other cash investors in tri-party via a CCP lien, applied “in lieu” of both a Sponsor guaranty of client performance and the posting of margin to the CCP, thereby solving the “double-margining” challenge. FICC aims to launch the Collateral-in-Lieu service in December 2025, subject to regulatory approval of the filing.
Noah Fact Check Pro
The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first emerged. We've since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may warrant further investigation.
Freshness check
Score: 10
Notes: The narrative is recent, dated 5 September 2025, and reports on a new filing by the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a 'Collateral-in-Lieu' service, aiming for a December 2025 launch. No earlier publications of this specific content were found, indicating high freshness. The report is based on a press release from the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), which typically warrants a high freshness score.
Quotes check
Score: 10
Notes: The report includes direct quotes from Laura Klimpel, Managing Director at DTCC, and Nate Wuerffel, BNY Mellon’s Global Head of Market Structure. These quotes appear to be original, with no earlier matches found online, suggesting potential exclusivity.
Source reliability
Score: 8
Notes: The narrative originates from Markets Media, a digital publisher covering trading and technology in capital markets. While not as widely recognised as major outlets like the Financial Times or Reuters, Markets Media is a reputable source within its niche. The report is based on a press release from DTCC, a reputable organisation, enhancing the reliability of the information.
Plausability check
Score: 9
Notes: The claims about the 'Collateral-in-Lieu' service align with known industry developments. The SEC's recent steps to facilitate central clearing in the U.S. Treasury market, including the adoption of rules in December 2023 and statements by SEC Chair Gary Gensler in November 2024, support the plausibility of the narrative. The report's language and tone are consistent with industry standards, and the details provided are specific and relevant.
Overall assessment
Veredict (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS
Confidence (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): HIGH
Summary: The narrative is recent, based on a press release from a reputable organisation, and includes original quotes. The claims are plausible and align with known industry developments, with no significant credibility risks identified.