ICE Credit-Clearing Profit Margin Beats Equity, Debt
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Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is earning higher pretax profit margins by guaranteeing credit-default swaps with its clearinghouse than banks make by selling fixed-income securities and equities to institutional investors.
The owner of the world’s largest credit swap clearinghouse, also known as ICE, earned a 35 percent margin last year for its business before splitting about half of the profits with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and the other dealers that support the clearing service, according to financial results released today.