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Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 149 No. 3 2023

Collateral competition: Evidence from central counterparties

Magdalena Grothe1; N. Aaron Pancost2; Stathis Tompaidis2

1 European Central Bank · 2 The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

We analyze competition and risk management at central counterparties (CCPs) using a granular transaction-level dataset, and find that CCPs decrease collateral in response to lower collateral at their competitors, an effect that becomes stronger as the correlation between positions increases. To interpret our findings, we derive a model in which collateral is driven by risk and CCP competition. Our results are consistent with the model and suggest that a single monopolistic CCP would require more collateral. We also show that amid the substantial increase in collateral during the Covid-19 pandemic, the probability of a margin breach did not significantly change.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfineco.2023.06.005
Volume
149
Issue
3
Pages
536-556
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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