Eurex Clearing to clear native digital instruments in GC Pooling repo and accept them as margin

Eurex Clearing says it will integrate “native digital instruments” into its existing clearing framework. It says this will make it “the world’s first hybrid central counterparty (CCP)”. Deutsche Börse Group announced the plan on 2 November.

What Eurex Clearing says will change

Under the model, native digital instruments, “including issuances by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)”, will:

• become tradable on Eurex Repo in its GC Pooling segment
• be cleared by Eurex Clearing
• be accepted as eligible margin collateral

Eurex Clearing says the digital instruments will also “become eligible collateral of the ECB GC Pooling basket”, so that they benefit from its secondary market “with no disadvantage compared to their traditional equivalents”. Eurex’s published basket specifications define the GC Pooling ECB Basket as securities admitted to the ECB’s Eligible Assets Database, with a minimum rating of A-/A3. The release does not say how or when individual digital instruments will meet those criteria.

The CCP says traditional and digital business will sit under “one clearing framework, one rulebook, and one unified risk model”. It adds that clients “do not need to build bespoke connectivity, manage disparate risk models, or establish new legal agreements to participate in digital markets.”

The release does not give a start date or haircuts, and it does not name eligible instruments beyond the ESM’s issuance.

The Clearstream and Pontes link

The plan connects with Clearstream’s digital infrastructure, which Deutsche Börse says lets clients move securities and cash between traditional and blockchain systems, “including wholesale central bank money via the Eurosystem’s Pontes solution – as demonstrated by the ESM’s recent first live digital native bond issuance.”

We covered the ESM’s €1bn digitally native bond, which the Bundesbank said would settle through Pontes (our report), and the launch of Pontes (our report).

Laura Bayley, CEO of Eurex Clearing, said: “The future of financial markets is hybrid. Instead of creating isolated digital islands that fragment liquidity and trap capital, Eurex Clearing is building a bridge between both ecosystems.”

Why it matters

Analysis. A recurring weakness of DLT-native bonds has been the lack of a deep secondary or financing market for them. Eurex describes GC Pooling as the European benchmark for standardised secured funding with central clearing. Making digital issuance eligible there, and as CCP margin, could give treasurers and repo desks a reason to hold it without a liquidity penalty. That depends on the haircuts, eligibility criteria and timing, none of which have been published yet.

The move also follows the Bank of England’s statement that the existing UK framework is not a barrier to CCPs accepting tokenised forms of eligible collateral, provided it meets the standards required in central clearing (our report). For clearing houses in the UK and the EU, the debate is moving from whether tokenised collateral can be accepted to the terms on which it is accepted.

What we are watching

• A Eurex Clearing circular setting out rule changes, eligibility criteria and a start date.
• Whether the first eligible instruments include issuance other than the ESM’s, such as sovereign or agency bonds.

Sources

• Eurex Clearing to Become the World’s First Hybrid CCP, Deutsche Börse Group, 2 November 2026
• GC Pooling Baskets, Eurex Repo
• Eurex Repo, Eurex