AMSTERDAM and LONDON, Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cboe Clear Europe, a leading pan-European clearing house, today announced that it has received regulatory approval to clear European Securities Financing Transactions (SFTs). This was granted by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) and the Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM).

With this approval, Cboe Clear Europe is set to introduce a first-of-its-kind service for European SFT transactions in cash equities and ETFs, which includes central clearing, settlement and post-trade lifecycle management. It is available to principal lenders, special participant lenders (UCITS and non-UCITS) and borrowers, with settlements conducted across 19 European Central Securities Depositories (CSDs).

The service supports key regulatory initiatives such as the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), Central Securities Depositary Regime (CSDR) and the Securities Financing Transactions Regulation (SFTR), thereby promoting transparency, market integrity and the competitiveness of European capital markets.

"We are delighted to have received regulatory approval to expand into European SFT clearing, marking a significant milestone in our goal to introduce innovative, robust, and comprehensive clearing solutions across multiple asset classes in Europe," said Vikesh Patel, President of Cboe Clear Europe. "This achievement underscores our dedication to supporting our clients' evolving needs and contributing to the resilience of financial markets. We greatly appreciate the support of our regulators as we deliver on our commitment to launch innovative services which we believe enhance efficiencies for European market participants and help foster the growth of the region's capital markets."

This service will help to transform the current bilateral process between securities lenders and borrowers into a centrally cleared model, with Cboe Clear Europe acting as the counterparty to both sides of each transaction. We believe this enables participants to reduce their risk-weighted asset exposures associated with SFTs and supports the growth of this key market. Additionally, it is expected to bring various capital and operational advantages, including savings from cross-margining between cash equities and SFTs, greater settlement efficiencies, elimination of agent lender disclosures, and improved practices around fees management and corporate actions.

The service will utilise The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation and J.P. Morgan as Tri-Party Collateral Agents, while Pirum will serve as the transmitter of new trade instructions and post-trade lifecycle events on behalf of clients.

Jan Treuren, Senior Director, Product, Cboe Clear Europe, said: "We are excited to build out this new clearing eco-system in collaboration with market participants and are already in advanced discussions with a wide variety of firms, including banks, asset managers, broker-dealers, and Agent Lenders - representing beneficial owners like pension funds and UCITS - to help ensure a smooth launch in the coming weeks and months. This service is supported by our best-in-class risk management framework, offering clients the advantage of Cboe Clear Europe's extensive settlement experience and broad direct connectivity to 19 European CSDs. Initially, the service will cover key European markets, with plans to expand the offering based on client demand and market developments."

As a leading pan-European cash equities clearing house, Cboe Clear Europe currently provides its services for 47 trading venues, achieving a record cash equity market share of 37.2%* in Q3 2024. The company enables Clearing Participants to manage their counterparty credit risk and also to maximise operational efficiencies through automated processing and the provision of netting opportunities. It diversified into equity derivatives clearing in 2021 to support the launch of Cboe Europe Derivatives (CEDX), Cboe's pan-European equity derivatives exchange, which includes equity index and single stock derivatives.

Further information on the company and its services can be found here: clear.cboe.com/europe

*Source: Cboe Clear Europe estimates

About Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: CBOE), the world's leading derivatives and securities exchange network, delivers cutting-edge trading, clearing and investment solutions to people around the world. Cboe provides trading solutions and products in multiple asset classes, including equities, derivatives and FX, across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Above all, we are committed to building a trusted, inclusive global marketplace that enables people to pursue a sustainable financial future. To learn more about the Exchange for the World Stage, visit www.cboe.com.

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Cboe Global Markets, Inc.  and its affiliates do not recommend or make any representation as to possible benefits from any securities, futures, digital assets or investments, or third-party products or services. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. is not affiliated with BNY, JP Morgan, and Pirum. Investors should undertake their own due diligence regarding their securities, futures, digital assets, and investment practices. This press release speaks only as of this date. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. disclaims any duty to update the information herein.

Nothing in this announcement should be considered a solicitation to buy or an offer to sell any securities, futures, or digital assets in any jurisdiction where the offer or solicitation would be unlawful under the laws of such jurisdiction. Nothing contained in this communication constitutes tax, legal or investment advice.  Investors must consult their tax adviser or legal counsel for advice and information concerning their particular situation.

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This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. You can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as "may," "might," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," and the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. All statements that reflect our expectations, assumptions or projections about the future other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements, which are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions about us, may include projections of our future financial performance based on our growth strategies and anticipated trends in our business. These statements are only predictions based on our current expectations and projections about future events. There are important factors that could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

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Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include: the loss of our right to exclusively list and trade certain index options and futures products; economic, political and market conditions; compliance with legal and regulatory obligations; price competition and consolidation in our industry; decreases in trading or clearing volumes, market data fees or a shift in the mix of products traded on our exchanges; legislative or regulatory changes or changes in tax regimes; our ability to protect our systems and communication networks from security vulnerabilities and breaches; our ability to attract and retain skilled management and other personnel; increasing competition by foreign and domestic entities; our dependence on and exposure to risk from third parties; global expansion of operations; factors that impact the quality and integrity of our and other applicable indices; our ability to manage our growth and strategic acquisitions or alliances effectively;  our ability to operate our business without violating the intellectual property rights of others and the costs associated with protecting our intellectual property rights; our ability to minimize the risks, including our credit, counterparty, investment, and default risks, associated with operating a European clearinghouse; our ability to accommodate trading and clearing volume and transaction traffic, including significant increases, without failure or degradation of performance of our systems; misconduct by those who use our markets or our products or for whom we clear transactions; challenges to our use of open source software code; our ability to meet our compliance obligations, including managing potential conflicts between our regulatory responsibilities and our for-profit status; our ability to maintain BIDS Trading as an independently managed and operated trading venue, separate from and not integrated with our registered national securities exchanges; damage to our reputation; the ability of our compliance and risk management methods to effectively monitor and manage our risks; restrictions imposed by our debt obligations and our ability to make payments on or refinance our debt obligations; our ability to maintain an investment grade credit rating; impairment of our goodwill, long-lived assets, investments or intangible assets; the impacts of pandemics; the accuracy of our estimates and expectations; litigation risks and other liabilities; and risks relating to digital assets, including winding down the Cboe Digital spot market and transitioning digital asset futures contracts to CFE, operating a digital assets futures clearinghouse, cybercrime, changes in digital asset regulation, and fluctuations in digital asset prices. More detailed information about factors that may affect our actual results to differ may be found in our filings with the SEC, including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and other filings made from time to time with the SEC.

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