LCH.Clearnet suffered a severe blow when ICE futures, the London arm of the Atlanta-based exchange and one their main customers, announced that it would be launching its won rival service. ICE Futures has been using LCH.Clearnet for clearing and risk management since October 2003 but has now filed with the US regulator to cancel this arrangement and is preparing an application to the FSA to become a recognised Clearing House.

The exchange says that the venture, which will be called ICE Clear Europe, will partner with ICE's US clearing house (which it acquired when it bought out The New York Board of Trade earlier this year), to serve its global customer base across the commodities and financial products marketplace, including futures and OTC markets.

Furthermore, in another bitter blow for LCH.Clearnet, the US energy exchange has hired Paul Swann, its former Head of Risk as president of its European clearing unit.