Post Trade Solutions
At Post Trade Solutions (formerly Acadia), we help firms maintain confidence and control even in the most turbulent market conditions. As the trusted industry standard for margin and collateral workflows, we provide the infrastructure and tools firms need to respond with speed, scale, and accuracy.
The challenge: Surging volatility
April brought a perfect storm of geopolitical tensions, shifting interest rate expectations, and macroeconomic uncertainty. These factors drove a notable spike in trading activity across the market, as participants looked to hedge risk and reposition portfolios. This along with daily market fluctuations, resulted in a surge of margin and collateral activity that tested the operational limits of many firms.
Across April we observed:
- Margin Call Volumes: Up 40% from historic averages, with daily margin call volumes going from 65,000 to 91,000.
- Initial Margin (IM) Trades: Daily trades in scope for UMR IM up over 42% in April, peaking at 4.4m total trades on April 15th, which was partly driven by participants hedging uncleared portfolios.
- Initial Margin Exposure: Daily IM exposure amounts up over 28% from March to April ($251B to $321B).
- Margin Call Amounts: Total initial and variation margin (VM) call amounts up over 40% on an average day from March to April (from $101B to $141B).
- Agreed Collateral Transfers: Total collateral/margin agreed to be exchanged across IM and VM up over 39% on an average day from March to April (from $77B to $107B).
- Dispute Rates: Despite increases in market volatility, dispute rates remained consistent with historic norms.
Our response: Operational resilience by design
Our collateral and margin workflows, along with our risk solutions, operated seamlessly throughout, supporting over 3,000 connected firms. This is a testament to the strength and reliability of our event-based platform, even under extreme pressure. In times of market volatility, collateral and risk teams are pulled to the forefront of any organisation.
Not only do they need to cope with an increased operational workload, but interest increases exponentially within an organisation with management wanting to understand where risk is growing or left unmitigated. Our innovative Margin Manager workflow solutions are essential to these teams and help them scale to meet the moment, automating away a variety of operational tasks and allowing these functions to focus on risk identification and mitigation. This is the result of years of investment in scalable, automated, and integrated workflows that can flex in real time to meet market demands.
A prime example is Post Trade Solutions’ (formerly Acadia) Initial Margin Exposure Manager (IMEM) – used by the majority of in-scope firms for reconciling initial margin differences. Thanks to its broad market adoption and robust design, IMEM provides fast, actionable insights across the full spectrum of in-scope trades. This tool has significantly improved industry practices, fostering greater transparency and making it easier to identify, compare, and resolve discrepancies.
Looking forward: Volatility as the new normal
Market events like those in April are no longer rare outliers - they are becoming more frequent and more complex. To stay ahead, firms must be prepared for the next wave of volatility, whether it is triggered by macroeconomic shocks, regulatory changes, or geopolitical developments. All firms should be prepared by having operational and liquidity measures in place to meet additional requirements.
Firms can also leverage the benchmarking capabilities offered by LSEG Post Trade Solutions (formerly Acadia) particularly through its Data Exploration (DX) service. This tool provides a comprehensive view across key operational metrics, enabling users to pinpoint inefficiencies and benchmark performance. By facilitating industry comparisons and peer group analysis, DX helps establish best practices and drive continuous improvement throughout our products.
At LSEG Post Trade Solutions, we are continuing to evolve our platform to help firms tackle new and evolving challenges. Our solutions enhance operational efficiency, minimises disputes, and helps firms flex their capacity without compromising control. With integrated tools across the collateral lifecycle, we provide a full perspective - and the resilience to manage risk at scale.
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