LONDON, 23 July – European cleared repo is entering its next phase of growth, with every sell-side firm surveyed expecting volumes to rise over the next two years and 73% planning to actively clear across multiple CCPs, a new report from Acuiti in partnership with Euronext has found.
Building on Momentum: The Next Phase of European Cleared Repo, which is released today, is based on a survey and series of interviews with senior executives at 47 sell-side firms across Europe, including global banks, regional banks, non-bank FCMs and non-bank brokers.
The report finds that European cleared repo has moved from predominantly a function of the interdealer market to far wider application across the ecosystem. Respondents expect continued growth as regulatory change, balance sheet pressure and the prospect of a US-style clearing mandate continue to influence decision making.
All respondents expect European cleared repo volumes to grow over the next 24 months, with two-thirds anticipating moderate growth of 11–25%. Eighty-four percent expect the incoming US Treasury clearing mandate to accelerate adoption of repo clearing in Europe, although most see this as a longer-term rather than immediate effect.
Multi-CCP clearing has become an embedded feature of sell-side strategy, with 73% of respondents planning to actively clear across multiple CCPs over the next three years and a further 18% planning to maintain a primary CCP alongside a secondary CCP for resilience. Access to liquidity is the dominant reason firms cite for doing so, at 78%, followed by pricing and fee competition at 57%.
Broader adoption is also being underpinned by the growth of sponsored repo, which has emerged as the most viable route to wider buy-side participation. Ninety-six percent of respondents see benefits in offering it to clients, with 64% citing improved client access to liquidity, even as adoption remains at an early stage.
The research also points to growing convergence between repo and cash bond infrastructure. While the trading desks themselves often remain distinct, 88% of respondents have already aligned, definitely plan to align, or are likely to align the operational infrastructure supporting the two activities. Sixty percent identify improved cross-margining between repo and cash bond positions as the most important way CCPs could facilitate greater coordination.
Cross-margining is a wider priority across the market, with 58% of respondents describing cross-margining of repo with other instruments as highly desirable and a further 32% describing it as nice to have.
The key findings in the report are:
- All respondents expect European cleared repo volumes to grow over the next 24 months, with 67% expecting moderate growth of 11–25%, 10% expecting significant growth of more than 26%, and 24% expecting slight growth of up to 10%
- 73% of respondents plan to actively clear across multiple CCPs over the next three years, while a further 18% plan to maintain a primary CCP with a secondary CCP for resilience
- 78% of respondents cite liquidity as a main reason for using more than one CCP, followed by 57% citing pricing or fee competition
- 96% of respondents see benefits in offering sponsored repo, with 64% citing improved client access to liquidity, 52% citing strategic competitiveness, and 48% citing the ability to grow client financing capabilities
- 88% of respondents have aligned, plan to align or are likely to align the operational infrastructure supporting repo and cash bonds, with 60% identifying improved cross-margining between repo and cash bond positions as the most important way CCPs could facilitate greater coordination
- 58% of respondents say cross-margining of repo with other instruments is highly desirable, while a further 32% describe it as nice to have
- 70% of respondents say granular margin analytics would influence their assessment of a CCP, with 50% saying it would have a moderate influence and 20% saying it would have a significant influence
- 69% of respondents cite CCP margin model transparency as one of the biggest challenges in cleared repo, while 65% say margin requirements are not very easy to predict
- 56% of respondents say better transparency and predictability of CCP margin would most improve collateral efficiency, followed by 53% citing faster collateral mobility and settlement plumbing
As firms expand their use of cleared repo and adopt more sophisticated multi-CCP strategies, margin transparency and analytics are becoming increasingly important.
Sixty-nine percent cite CCP margin-model transparency as a challenge, while 70% say granular margin analytics would influence their assessment of a CCP. Sixty-five percent say margin requirements are not easy to predict, and 56% say better transparency and predictability of CCP margin would do most to improve collateral efficiency.
Liquidity fragmentation across venues remains the biggest barrier to executing multi-CCP strategies at scale. Research shows that existing models can still involve a significant operational lift, from onboarding and legal documentation to intraday liquidity management. The next stage will be developing access models that are simpler to implement and better aligned with the practical realities of both sponsors and their clients.
Yama Darriet, Head of OTC and Repo Expansion, Euronext, said: “This research shows clearly that European cleared repo is entering its next phase of growth. Supporting that growth means making access simpler and improving capital efficiency across fixed income through an efficient risk framework, collateral management capabilities, scalable sponsored access, and meaningful cross-margining across cash bonds, repos, and fixed income derivatives.
“At Euronext, we are developing our offering with market participants and around the practical realities they face today — from onboarding and collateral management to margin efficiency and operational scale. Euronext is bringing healthy competition to a market that has needed it for some time, and that competition is already driving innovation and lowering costs for clients.”
The full whitepaper, Building on Momentum: The Next Phase of European Cleared Repo, is available to download at https://www.acuiti.io/the-next-phase-of-european-cleared-repo/
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For more information, contact Ross Lancaster at Acuiti
Tel.: +44 (0) 203 998 9687
Email: rosslancaster@acuiti.io
About Acuiti
Acuiti is a management intelligence platform serving senior executives across the global derivatives, ETFs and fixed income markets. Through its exclusive expert networks, Acuiti gathers anonymised insight from banks, brokers, proprietary trading firms and buy-side institutions, publishing benchmarking data, quarterly sentiment analysis and bespoke research on the trends shaping the industry. Founded in 2019, Acuiti brings greater transparency to operations across global markets. Visit acuiti.io.
About Euronext
Euronext is the leading European capital market infrastructure, covering the entire capital markets value chain, from listing, trading, clearing, settlement and custody, to solutions for issuers and investors. Euronext runs MTS, one of Europe’s leading electronic fixed income trading markets, and Nord Pool, the European power market. Euronext also provides clearing and settlement services through Euronext Clearing and its Euronext Securities CSDs in Denmark, Italy, Norway and Portugal. In November 2025, Euronext acquired a majority stake in the Athens Stock Exchange (ATHEX), reinforcing its pan-European footprint and further extending its fully integrated market infrastructure with the addition of an exchange, a CSD and a clearing house.
As of June 2026, Euronext’s regulated exchanges in Belgium, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal host over 1,800 listed issuers with €7 trillion in market capitalisation, a strong blue-chip franchise and the largest global centre for debt and fund listings. With a diverse domestic and international client base, Euronext handles 29% of European lit equity trading. Its products include equities, FX, ETFs, bonds, derivatives, commodities and indices.
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