CHICAGO, February 12, 2016
OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today applauded the announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that, following an independent review of the record by the full Commission, the regulatory agency approved OCC’s capital plan that had been previously approved on behalf of the Commission by SEC staff in March 2015.
In doing so, the SEC said “given OCC’s critical clearing functions and its systemic importance, the Commission agrees that having OCC increase its capitalization is appropriate and in the public interest.” The Commission also found that “the Capital Plan does not impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the [Exchange] Act. You can read the complete SEC order on the OCC capital plan at https://www.sec.gov/rules/other/2016/34-77112.pdf.
“We are pleased that the SEC has granted final approval of OCC”s capital plan,” said Craig Donohue, OCC Executive Chairman. “Through this action, the SEC has confirmed that strengthening OCC’s capitalization is a compelling public interest and has acknowledged OCC’s importance to the U.S. financial markets as a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility. OCC’s Capital Plan is a vital component to our goal of providing world-class service to market participants and ensuring the resiliency of an important market utility.”
