David M. Hardy

In 1985, he was seconded to International Commodities Clearing House (ICCH) and in December 1987 became Managing Director of its London Clearing House division, clearing contracts traded on London-based futures and options exchanges.

LCH was incorporated in 1991; the other non-core activities of the ICCH group were transferred to a separate company, subsequently closed down under David Hardy’s management. LCH was further restructured in 1996 following a transfer of ownership from a consortium of UK banks to its member firms (currently numbering 102) and the London exchanges, with financial backing provided by members and the insurance market.

David Hardy serves on the Boards of the Futures and Options Association and the Futures Industry Institute, and in May 2001 he was invited to join the Financial Service Authority's Financial Services Practitioner Forum, which represents a cross-section of regulated firms. He served on the Boards of the International Petroleum Exchange from 1993-1999 and the London Commodity Exchange from 1991 until its merger with the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange in 1996.

LCH is one of the world’s leading and most innovative clearing houses. It acts as central counterparty for members trading on London’s futures and options markets. Central counterparty services for European fixed income markets are provided by LCH RepoClear and for interbank interest rate swap markets by LCH SwapClear.

LCH EquityClear provides central counterparty services to the cash equity markets, having successfully launched its Central Counterparty for Equities service for the London Stock Exchange’s electronic order book (SETS) at the end of February 2001. In 2000, LCH cleared in excess of 224 million contracts.