The Case for Connected ETD Clearing Infrastructure

Clearing markets have spent recent years navigating higher volumes, sharper volatility and shifting client expectations. Exchange-traded derivatives (ETD) infrastructure emerged from the 2020 stress test stronger, but the pressure to modernize has only intensified.

Now, the question is how to evolve ETD clearing infrastructure alongside markets that are changing at a rapid pace. Clearing is becoming more real-time, more data-dependent, more integrated across front-to-back functions and more sensitive to how technology choices affect operating flexibility, performance and resilience.

In a new report from Nasdaq and Acuiti, firms are preparing for this next phase: 69% of firms plan to increase post-trade spend over the next three years, and 67% identify resilience and reliability as a key factor when evaluating a third-party vendor.

Driving much of that spend is pressure from the buy-side, which is pushing hardest on margin and risk transparency and collateral management—the two areas asset managers and hedge funds most want their FCMs to improve.

The mandate to modernize is there. But what will sell-side providers, including futures commission merchants (FCMs), prioritize when planning platform investment? The answer is interconnected, end-to-end orchestration that can automate, elevate and future-proof ETD clearing.
 

Beyond the operational pressures captured in the research, regulatory and market shifts are compounding the urgency. The SEC's U.S. Treasury clearing mandate, phasing in through 2026, is forcing firms to expand capacity and rethink cross-asset connectivity. Meanwhile, the institutionalization of digital asset derivatives—and the growing use of tokenized collateral to mobilize margin in near real time—is pressure-testing legacy platforms in ways ETD infrastructure was never designed for. Layer in the industry's move toward 24/7 clearing and settlement, and the case for scalable, adaptive, always-on infrastructure has never been stronger.

The report’s three most-cited operational pain points are closely connected:

• 53% cite reliance on legacy post-trade systems
• 51% cite data quality and/or fragmentation
• 49% cite reliance on manual intervention in areas such as reconciliations

Legacy systems can create fragmented data environments. Fragmented data increases reconciliation work. Manual intervention slows response times, limits scalability and makes timely reporting harder. Those dependencies reinforce each other, increasing complexity and cost.

Many clearing environments have been built over many years, with new layers added to support product expansion, regional requirements, client-specific processes, regulatory change and tactical system needs. The challenge facing firms is how to ensure those layers work together to support seamless operations.

As firms assess their architecture, many are pursuing new technology to help them reduce fragmentation, solve silos, gain real-time data and scale end-to-end operations: 27% of respondents are planning to change their core post-trade processing technology over the next five years, while 16% are already in the process of changing.
 

ETD clearing, as with broader markets, is amid a shift from batch, end-of-day to agile intraday. Market conditions move quickly, fueled by accelerating news cycles and developments. In turn, margin demands can change rapidly throughout the day, impacting everything from liquidity risk to collateral.

This puts the emphasis on clearer, faster insight into positions, exposures and obligations. Practically, that means real-time and intraday capabilities are becoming more important in vendor evaluation, especially as the markets move to an always-on environment:

• 55% identify real-time or intraday processing capabilities as an important vendor evaluation factor
• 60% identify ease of integration
• 38% cite the ability to support both listed and OTC derivatives on a single platform

Importantly, real-time capability is not only about processing speed. It depends on whether the information needed to act is connected across the clearing lifecycle. That fact leads to other considerations in architecting modernized ETD clearing infrastructure, like data quality, accessibility and auditability, or front-to-back workflows.
 

Automation is a leading investment priority, 64% of FCMs cite increased automation as a primary driver of higher post-trade investment. Applied across the scope of ETD clearing, automation can reduce friction and improve consistency, including trade capture, position management, reconciliation, settlement, margin calculation, fee processing, reporting and exception management. But the value of automation depends on the quality of the workflow around it.

The most effective automation programs are rarely the ones that only remove a step from an existing process. They are the ones that improve how information moves across the full workflow. If trade, position, margin and collateral data sit across fragmented systems, automation may make one part of the process faster while leaving other parts dependent on manual checks or workarounds. Complexity is not removed. It moves somewhere else.

The better goal is workflow continuity: knowing where data originates, how it moves, where decisions are made, what controls apply and how exceptions are resolved.

When automation is built into a connected infrastructure model, it can reduce manual work, improve transparency and make exception management more consistent. It also gives firms a firmer foundation for adapting to changes in products, margin models, client needs and market structure.

Crucially, automation and data management are pillars for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML): 56% of FCMs say they risk falling behind competitors without integrating AI/ML into their clearing operations. Those capabilities can only deliver value when the underlying data is clean, connected and accessible. Automation built on a connected infrastructure model is what makes that possible.
 

The overarching signal from the report was that sell-side providers, including bank and nonbank FCMs, are upping their spend on ETD clearing technology and the wide majority of them will do so by investing in a vendor platform: 62% said they preferred a third-party platform over an in-house build.

But transformation efforts are rarely solely about the platform alone. While firms are motivated to gain new capabilities driven by buy-side demands, how they integrate, operationalize and maintain a new solution also factors into the equation. That scale and scope of change led 71% to cite change risk as their top challenge in upgrading core post-trade platforms. As such, many are looking for vendors who can support platforms as strategic partners.

As firms plan to spend on new platforms, they have a wide set of criteria for success that extends well beyond new capabilities. When asked what they valued in a third-party vendor for ETD clearing technology, the top factors cited by firms were:

• Resilience and reliability - 67%
• Ease of integration (APIs, event-driven architecture, CCP connectivity) - 60%
• Total cost of ownership - 57%
• Real-time and intraday processing capabilities - 55%

Another 9% would choose managed services over an in-house build—a clear signal of where ETD clearing operating models are heading. Managed services deliver the flexibility and scale to cut costs, simplify maintenance and releases, freeing firms to focus on what matters: meeting buy-side demand and capturing new revenue.
 

FCMs and clearing firms are preparing for the next phase of investment in earnest. As spending rises, strategies are being reassessed and firms are thinking carefully about automation, resilience and operating efficiency.

Modernization should be measured by how effectively firms reduce fragmentation, improve workflow continuity, strengthen data quality and create flexibility to adapt as clearing evolves.

Durable progress will come from linking automation with data quality, resilience with integration, platform investment with operational control and margin and collateral workflows with more timely insight. Firms that make those connections will be better positioned to manage today’s operational demands and create capacity for future market structure change.

Nasdaq Calypso supports ETD clearing through a model that combines modular risk services for initial margin and position limit monitoring, an end-to-end clearing platform and dedicated support for implementation, deployment and operational support. Together, these capabilities make Nasdaq Calypso a strategic partner for firms modernizing ETD clearing infrastructure while preserving flexibility in how they operate, scale and serve clients.

Learn more about Nasdaq Financial Technology and Nasdaq Calypso Clearing.

© 2026 Nasdaq, Inc. All rights reserved. Nasdaq and Nasdaq Calypso are registered trademarks of Nasdaq, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries.
 

Discover How Nasdaq Financial Technology Empowers Over 3,800 Leading Finance Organizations

We are committed to helping market operators and participants overcome infrastructure, operational and regulatory challenges. Our solutions empower you to focus on your core competencies, driving market growth and progress.

Learn More