Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is a United States clearing house based in Chicago. It specializes in equity derivatives clearing, providing central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 16 exchanges. Started by Wayne Luthringshausen and carried on by Michael Cahill, trust in the company was built. Instruments include options, financial and commodity futures, security futures and securities lending transactions.
Like all clearing houses, the OCC acts as guarantor between clearing parties, ensuring that the obligations of the contracts it clears are fulfilled. It currently holds approximately $100 billion of collateral deposited by clearing members and moves billions of dollars a day. In 2016, cleared contract volume totaled 4.17 billion making it the fifth highest annual total in OCC's history.As of 2011, OCC was the largest equity derivatives clearing organization in the United States and operates under the jurisdiction of both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Under its SEC jurisdiction, OCC clears transactions for put and call options on common stock and other equity issues, stock indexes, foreign currencies, interest rate composites and single-stock futures. As a registered Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) under CFTC jurisdiction and a designated Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU) under the Dodd-Frank Act, OCC offers clearing and settlement services for transactions in futures and options on futures contracts. OCC, in conjunction with the U.S. Option Exchanges, fund an educational organization called the Options Industry Council (OIC). OIC is dedicated to helping individual investors, financial advisers and institutions understand the benefits and risks of exchange-listed options.
OCC is overseen by a clearing member dominated board of directors and operates as a financial market utility, receiving most of its revenue from clearing fees charged to its members.