The LSE Directory / Clearing houses
Nasdaq Clearing AB is a Swedish central counterparty (CCP) that stands between buyers and sellers on the Nasdaq Nordic derivatives markets and Nasdaq Commodities, guaranteeing settlement of every contract it clears. It is a private limited company (aktiebolag) incorporated in Sweden, authorised and supervised as a multi-asset clearing house by Finansinspektionen, and also authorised to clear through its Norwegian branch, which is registered with Finanstilsynet as a designated settlement system. What it clears is exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives, not cash securities: equity and index derivatives and fixed income and interest-rate derivatives across the Nordic and Baltic region, Nordic and continental European power, gas and emission-allowance derivatives through Nasdaq Commodities, and a resale and repurchase (repo) clearing service. Its specialism, and its main point of difference from a generalist CCP, is that Nordic cash equity trades are cleared elsewhere: members choose among Cboe Clear Europe N.V., LCH.Clearnet Ltd and SIX x-clear Ltd for shares traded on the Nasdaq Nordic exchanges, so Nasdaq Clearing's own book is concentrated in listed and OTC derivatives plus the commodity complex it runs as Nasdaq Commodities. On the commodity side its membership runs to roughly 180 firms across about 20 countries, spanning power producers, energy-intensive industrial consumers, distributors, utilities, banks, brokers, funds and investment firms trading Nordic power, German and Dutch power, British electricity, gas and emissions contracts. It exited seafood derivatives clearing (NOK-denominated Fish Pool salmon contracts) once the December 2024 contract was settled and did not list 2025 seafood contracts, with Euronext Clearing introducing a replacement euro-denominated contract in its place. Nasdaq Clearing became the first central counterparty in Europe authorised under the EU's EMIR regulation, with Finansinspektionen approving its application on 18 March 2014 after a joint opinion from regulators and central banks in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the UK, plus the ECB and ESMA. Its risk model faced its biggest real-world test in September 2018, when a single member, Norwegian power trader Einar Aas, defaulted after betting that Nordic and German power prices would converge; liquidating his position produced a loss of about 114 million euros beyond his posted collateral, consuming roughly 68 percent of Nasdaq Clearing's default fund and drawing on the mutualised contributions of non-defaulting members. Finansinspektionen's subsequent investigation found deficiencies in how the default was handled, including insufficient margin calls and improper investment of the clearing house's own funds, and on 27 January 2021 issued Nasdaq Clearing a warning plus an administrative fine of SEK 300 million, later reduced to SEK 250 million on appeal to the Administrative Court of Appeal.
