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Abstract
In collateralised markets, risk and cost are explicitly connected. Risky trades or portfolios attract more margin, which can be brought down by finding or creating offsets, so clients and banks share an interest in ensuring trading occurs in the most efficient way possible. That's not an easy trick to pull off, but in 2011 Barclays launched a tool it calls the Dynamic Rates Initial Margin Calculator (D-RIMC), a cross-netting system for liquid portfolios of interest rate swaps, government bonds and exchange-traded futures and options, as well as over-the-counter options and swaptions. Internally, Barclays uses this facility in D-RIMC to help size positions and hedges for its fixed-income financing trading desk. In addition, it uses the loss metrics to assess the coverage provided by client margin.