KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 (Reuters) - Malaysian Derivatives Clearing House(MDCH) said on Wednesday it had introduced a new membership scheme toguarantee smoother trading for crude palm oil (CPO) futures on theMalaysian Derivatives Exchange.The Direct Clearing Membership (DCM) will allow eligible participantsto maintain CPO futures open positions directly with the clearing houseand minimise trading risks."The facility, particularly for institutional users of CPO products,acts as means of minimising counter-party risk and ensures absoluteconfidentiality of positions," the clearing house said in a statement,adding that applications for membership begin on March 6.A DCM member will execute trades through a futures broker, and will nowbe able to clear trades directly with the clearing house. Under theprevious system trade participants were required to trade and clear palmoil futures via brokers."DCMs will be able to carry out post trade transactions, such as tradesand position maintenance, margining and settlements directly with theMDCH," said the statement.The MDCH clears and settles CPO futures contract, the Kuala LumpurInterbank Offer Rates Futures Contract, the Composite Index FuturesContract and the Composite Index Options Contract, which are traded on thederivatives exchange."MDCH is confident that this new category of membership, DCM, willaddress the issues of counter-party risk and confidentiality," thestatement said.