People outside a clearinghouse cannot judge its safeguards from the word regulated alone. The SEC final rule published in the Federal Register on October 13, 2016 establishes enhanced operational and governance standards for covered clearing agencies. Its definition matters: registration with the regulator does not, by itself, place every agency inside this particular framework. [clearing-standards]

The final scope includes agencies designated systemically important where the SEC is the supervisory agency. It also includes agencies providing central counterparty services for security-based swaps, or undertaking activities the SEC determines have a more complex risk profile, subject to the stated qualification for CFTC supervision. Those distinctions are institutional boundaries, not a ranking of whose customers deserve protection. [clearing-standards]

A separate SEC proposal published in the same issue would extend the definition to registered agencies providing central counterparty, central securities depository or securities settlement system services. It also proposes widening the scope of sensitivity-analysis requirements. This second document makes a potential expansion visible; it does not establish that the expansion has taken effect. Comments are due December 12, 2016. [clearing-definition]

For a public-interest assessment, the unresolved question is who falls within the stronger framework and who remains outside it. Broader coverage deserves scrutiny alongside the work required to implement it. Neither these provisions nor their publication proves that losses or disruption will be prevented. The documents describe two parts of the SEC’s policy process, not independent evidence of protection already delivered to workers, customers or savers. [clearing-standards][clearing-definition]

Source documents

  1. Standards for Covered Clearing Agencieshttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-10-13/html/2016-23891.htm
  2. Definition of Covered Clearing Agencyhttps://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-10-13/html/2016-23892.htm