OCC named Tier 1 TC-CCP under EMIR 01 July 2022US Reporter: Carmella Haswell
Image: Iuliia_Sokolovska/stock.adobe.com
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recognised the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) as a Tier 1 third-country central counterparty (TC-CCP), under Article 25 of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
ESMA’s recognition follows the decision of the European Commission in 2016, whereby the regulatory framework for CCPs and exchanges supervised by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were found equivalent to EMIR.
This also includes similar decisions regarding CCPs and exchanges supervised by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which occurred in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Speaking on the announcement, John Davidson, OCC’s chief executive officer, says: “This recognition is a tremendous milestone and the culmination of years of work by OCC and regulators in the US and Europe to establish equivalency and recognition.
“ESMA’s decision is an important accomplishment that will allow continued growth and fostering of global markets. We are gratified that our current and future clearing members affiliated with European banks have clarity on the regulatory treatment of their exposures to OCC.”
Additionally, the OCC has welcomed new members to its Board of Directors with the appointments of managing directors Alicia Crighton and Faris Matalka.
Crighton is global head of prime services clearing, futures clearing and cleared swaps at Goldman Sachs. During her career with the firm, she was previously chief operating officer of those businesses.
Prior to this, Crighton was based in Hong Kong where she oversaw the building out of Goldman Sachs’ Asia clearing business.
Matalka is the head of trading operations and margin services at Charles Schwab and brings more than 20 years of experience in trading operations and risk management to the Board.
He currently oversees order management in equities, equity options and futures as well as relationships with market makers and US exchanges.
NO FEE, NO RISK 100% ON RETURNSIf you invest in only one securities finance news source this
year, make sure it is your free subscription to Securities Finance Times
Image: Iuliia_Sokolovska/stock.adobe.com 