“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.

About OCC

The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), named Risk Magazine’s 2022 Clearing House of the Year, is the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 19 exchanges and trading platforms. More information about OCC is available at www.theocc.com.