CME Clearing believes providing transparency on its practices is of the utmost importance. To that end, we publish a variety of documents to educate and provide details on our practices, particularly our risk management practices. CME Clearing continually seeks to work with clearing members and customers to provide them added transparency. The information contained in these documents has been compiled by CME Group for general purposes only. While some relevant CME Group Exchange Rules may be discussed with respect to CME Clearing's practices, all matters pertaining to rules and specifications herein are made subject to, and are superseded by, the CME Group Exchange Rulebooks. Current versions of the Rules should always be consulted.
CME Clearing occasionally publishes papers which are designed to objectively address the important policy topics in the central clearing space. Links to these papers are provide below.
Balancing CCP and Member Contributions with Exposures
Stability in Times of Stress: CME Clearing’s Anti-Procyclical Margining Regime
CME Clearing employs a variety of tools to actively manage risk to provide optimal risk management protections, including clearing membership requirements, margining, stress testing, counterparty and liquidity risk monitoring, and operational risk management, among others.
We have established two independent financial safeguards waterfalls, one for Base products (e.g., futures and options) and one for IRS products. The risk management practices and resources for managing a clearing member default event for each of these waterfalls is described further in the document below, among other documents linked on this page.
CME Clearing Risk Management and Financial Safeguards
Size of the Financial Safeguards Waterfalls
101 Overview: Financial Safeguards Waterfall
101 Overview: Stress Testing Practices
101 Overview: Liquidity Risk Management
101 Overview: Counterparty Credit Risk
101 Overview: Default Management
101 Overview: Delivery
Performance bond, often referenced as margin, is a good-faith deposit to guarantee performance of open positions against potential future losses. Performance bond requirements are designed to provide coverage for a minimum of 99% of market moves. Requirements are calculated at least once daily for clearing member and customer portfolios, but twice daily in most cases.
SPAN Overview
Product-level Margins for Exchange-Traded Derivatives
IRS Products Margining Overview
Margin Services
101 Overview: Performance Bond Practices
101 Overview: Customer Protection and Segregation
101 Overview: Customer Margining at CME Clearing
CME Clearing employs a policy for establishing and reviewing criteria for acceptable collateral to meet performance bond and Guaranty Fund obligations. While CME Clearing’s collateral acceptance policy is appropriately prudent, it accepts a diverse set of asset types to meet clearing members’ and customers’ needs. Certain collateral types are subject to collateral haircuts and limits.
101 Overview: Collateral
Acceptable Collateral
Base Products’ Collateral Haircuts and Limits:
IRS Products’ Collateral Haircuts and Limits
CME Clearing Collateral Custodians
101 Overview: Investment Policy
The Principals for Financial Market Infrastructures define international standards for clearing risk management practices. Consistent with these standards and CFTC regulations, CME Clearing publishes qualitative and quantitative disclosures, available below.
These disclosures were created to help improve the overall transparency of global clearing houses. The qualitative disclosures detail CME Clearing’s margining, stress testing, collateral acceptance, counterparty and liquidity risk management practices, and more. The quantitative disclosures provide data points relative to these practices.
CME Clearing Qualitative PFMI Disclosures
CME Clearing Quantitative PFMI Disclosures
CME Clearing Qualitative PFMI Disclosures—blacklined
CME Clearing Transparency Quick Links Document
Watch now: CME Clearing Quantitative Disclosure Webinar
For questions regarding the CPMI-IOSCO Qualitative and Quantitative Disclosures, please contact CMEPFMIResponse@cmegroup.com.
The FSB’s questionnaire on Continuity of Access to FMIs for Firms in Resolution is intended to provide a common template for gathering information about continuity of access to CCPs for firms in resolution. CME Clearing has published its responses to the questionnaire, available here.
Our Board of Directors sets high standards for CME Group, providing governance and oversight for the safety and efficiency of CME Clearing. In fulfilling its oversight and governance responsibilities, the Board of Directors has established and delegated responsibilities to dedicated committees to focus on specific governance matters, including the Clearing House Oversight Committee, Clearing House Risk Committee, and IRS Risk Committee.
The Board of Directors’ Corporate Governance Principles and responsibilities of each of these committees are set forth in written charters, that are publicly available. The Board of Directors also has complete and open access to members of the senior management, including the President of CME Clearing.
101 Overview: Governance
CME Certificate of Incorporation
CME Bylaws
Board of Directors’ Corporate Governance Principles
Members of the Board of Directors
Members of the Management Team
Committees Established by the Board of Directors
Clearing House Risk Working Group Procedures
CME Clearing provides fair and open access to its clearing services by establishing appropriate admission and continuing participation requirements for clearing members that are objective, public and risk-based. Clearing members assume full financial and performance responsibility for all transactions executed through them and cleared by CME Clearing.
The Clearing Membership Handbook, available below, is designed to familiarize firms with the requirements for clearing membership that are defined in the rules and to assist them in becoming clearing members. Additionally, the list of current clearing members and the application to become a clearing member are available below.
List of Clearing Members
Application and Agreement for Clearing Membership
Membership and Lease Pricing
Summary of Clearing Membership Requirements
The rules underpinning CME Clearing’s practices, including obligations of clearing members, are publicly available below. All rule changes are filed with the CFTC pursuant to its standardized format and publicly available below.
To reduce the accumulation of debt in the system, all products cleared by CME Clearing are settled at least once daily. CME Clearing facilitates the exchange of settlement variation by requiring payments from clearing members whose positions have lost value and making payments to clearing members whose positions have gained value. Settlement procedures, available below, are defined for the normal daily settlement and final settlement of CME Group’s futures and options.
Settlement Procedures
Daily Settlements
CME Clearing Settlement Banks
101 Overview: Settlement
As a qualifying central counterparty CME Clearing is required to make available or calculate required data for purposes of calculating capital requirements for default fund (i.e., Guaranty Fund) exposures under the Basel III capital framework. CME Clearing computes the risk weight or ‘c-factor’ value bank or bank-affiliated clearing members may utilize in determining the amount of regulatory capital to be held against default fund contributions.
CME Clearing understands the value of keeping you informed of changes and innovations in our operations. As such press releases, clearing advisories, and market regulation advisories are publicly available.
CME Group press releases
Clearing advisories
Market regulation advisories
View transaction timelines, including banking timelines, and the CME Clearing’s holiday trading calendar.
Clearing transaction timelines
CME Clearing holiday calendar
View a list of CME Group contacts.
© 2024 CME Group Inc. All rights reserved.