/>iOn April 9, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted amendments to its rules for securities clearing agencies to apply enhanced standards to all SEC-registered central counterparties (CCPs) and central securities depositories (CSDs).
The amendments are meant to build on rules adopted by the SEC in 2016 pursuant to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, establishing enhanced standards for the operation and governance of securities clearing agencies deemed systemically important and those that are CCPs for security-based swaps.
The adopted rules will amend the following:
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17 CFR 240.17Ad22(a)(5) will be amended to define “covered clearing agency” to mean a registered clearing agency that provides the services of a CCP or CSD;
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17 CFR 240.17Ad-22(a)(3) will be amended to define “central securities depository” to mean a clearing agency that is a securities depository as described in Section 3(a)(23)(A) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934; and
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the definition of “sensitivity analysis” included in 17 CFR 240.17Ad-22(a)(16) will be amended so that the policies and procedures of all covered clearing agencies that are CCPs provide for a sensitivity analysis that considers the most volatile relevant periods, where practical, that have been experienced by the markets served by the covered clearing agency.
The adopted rules will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The final rule is available here.
