CHICAGO (June 30, 2022) — OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization, today announced that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has granted recognition to OCC as a Tier 1 third-country central counterparty (TC-CCP) under Article 25 of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).
“This recognition is a tremendous milestone and the culmination of years of work by OCC and regulators in the U.S. and Europe to establish equivalency and recognition,” said John Davidson, OCC’s Chief Executive Officer.
“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.”
ESMA’s recognition follows the 2016 decision by the European Commission finding the regulatory framework for both CCPs and exchanges supervised by the CFTC equivalent to EMIR as well as similar decisions regarding CCPs and exchanges supervised by the SEC, which occurred in 2021 and 2022, respectively. As a dual-regulated CCP, ESMA determined equivalency decisions for both the CFTC and the SEC were necessary before full consideration of OCC’s application.
Source: OCC
