Meff, the Spanish futures and options exchange, is to launch a new central counterparty clearing house for government bond and repo trading in Spain in September.

Having received authorisation from the Ministry of Economy, the launch of MeffClear has been scheduled for September 18. Meff has been involved as a central counterparty for futures and options since 1989, but before changes were made to legislation last year, futures markets were not allowed to act as central counterparties on repo contracts under Spanish law.