The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) has granted the status of Recognised Overseas Clearing House (ROCH) to ICE Clear US, a derivatives clearing house owned by US exchange operator IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).
The recognition will primarily enable ICE Clear US to increase its physical presence and marketing efforts in the UK. The ROCH status affords ICE Clear US equivalent insolvency protections to those afforded to a UK clearing house, and thereby supports the acceptance of UK firms as clearing members.
ICE Clear US submitted an application for recognition as an ROCH in June 2007. The application was reviewed by the FSA to ensure, among other things, that: investors and clearing members located in the UK are afforded protections equivalent to those applicable when they clear transactions with a UK clearing house; the applicant is willing to cooperate by sharing information with UK regulators; and adequate arrangements exist for information sharing between the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the FSA. In addition, ICE Clear US’s application was found by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading not to have any significant adverse effect on competition.
The recognition was made under Section 292 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 following approval from the UK Treasury. ICE Clear US is the clearing house for ICE Futures US, providing clearing services and financial stability for its clearing members. Products traded at ICE Futures US include agricultural, foreign exchange and equity index futures and options contracts.