OCC and EquiLend Clearing target sec lending boost with partnership

OCC and EquiLend have formed a partnership to extend CCP access to the securities lending market.
By Paul Walsh
The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and EquiLend Clearing Services (ECS) have partnered up in a bid to increase access to central counterparty clearing in the securities finance marketplace.

As part of the partnership, ECS has developed a middle office platform supporting OCC’s market loan programme, processing post-trade functions such as mark to market, returns, recalls and other trade lifecycle events.

Simultaneously the ECS Gateway has also been developed, designed to offer straight through processing between Equilend’s trading and post-trade services to the ECS middle office.

OCC will use the ECS Gateway to facilitate matched trades and lifecycle events for processing in the market loan programme on behalf of ECS and other loan markets.

“Our strategic alliance with OCC on the market loan programme is a critical step toward bringing greater access to central counterparty clearing services to the securities finance market,” said Brian Lamb, CEO of EquiLend.

“This collaboration between EquiLend and OCC allows us to jointly build upon OCC’s strong foundation in securities finance clearing.”

The first bilaterally agreed disclosed trades executed on the ECS platform have already flowed from ECS Gateway through the ECS middle office to OCC.

Clients have the option to leverage the full straight through processing capabilities by linking their proprietary systems to ECS.

Through this system, clients will then be able to submit bilaterally agreed trades to EquiLend clearing services for matching.

“Our collaboration with EquiLend will enhance our clearing services for securities lending,” said Chip Dempsey, chief commercial officer at OCC.

“EquiLend’s culture, technology and network make them an ideal partner as we work to strengthen the resiliency of the securities lending market and introduce innovations designed to expand access to and utilisation of centralised clearing.”

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