Does central clearing benefit risky dealers?

•Using intraday quotes of CDS dealers we measure the effect of the first central clearing to the market.•We confirm central clearing to eliminate counterparty risk and improve price information.•Riskier dealers participate more actively in the market.•But their willingness to sell is stronger than to buy. We study the effect of the first introduction of central clearing to the credit default swap market using a data set of intraday quotes sent directly by the major dealers to the market. We find the event to eliminate counterparty risk and improve price information. Furthermore, we find riskier dealers to increase their trading activity. In fact, after the elimination of their counterparty risk premium they increase the number of competitive quotes both on the bid and ask sides but more pronounced on the ask side.