EuroCCP (or, European Central Counterparty Limited) is a company that provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing services for equities traded on multilateral trading facilities and stock exchanges in Europe. EuroCCP is incorporated in the UK (England and Wales) and regulated by the Financial Services Authority as a Recognised Clearing House.

EuroCCP is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). DTCC is a holding company incorporated in the United States, with subsidiaries active since the 1970's in the provision of clearing and settlement services for equities, corporate and municipal bonds, government and mortgage-backed securities, and money market instruments. DTCC also operates a trade repository for over-the-counter derivatives.

DTCC subsidiary National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) provides central counterparty clearing services for all equities traded in the United States. In 2009 NSCC processed, on average, 127 million sides of equities transactions daily.

DTCC’s depository provides custody and asset servicing for more than 3.5 million securities issues from the United States and 121 other countries and territories, valued at US$33.9 trillion. In 2009, DTCC settled more than US$1.47 quadrillion in securities transactions.

In addition, DTCC is a leading central processor of mutual funds, insurance and syndicated loan transactions. DTCC has operating facilities in multiple locations in the United States and overseas. For more information on DTCC, visit www.dtcc.com.

EuroCCP provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing services for equities traded in Europe. It currently provides clearing services for multilateral trading facilities Turquoise, SmartPool, NYSE Arca Europe and Pipeline Financial Group Limited, and will in 2010 provide clearing services to NASDAQ OMX Nordic exchanges in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm.

EuroCCP's CCP service eliminates counterparty risks for trading firms. Through netting, EuroCCP greatly reduces operations risks, operations costs and financing costs.

Through trade novation, EuroCCP guarantees to trading firms that the trades will settle at the price agreed at execution even if one party to the trade is unable to honour its settlement obligations (due to bankruptcy, for example).

Through multilateral netting, EuroCCP reduces settlement obligations for trading firms into a single net receipt or delivery per day for each security traded, regardless of the number of trades.

Through cross-platform netting (possible in all markets except the UK), all trades in the same security executed by a trading firm on any of the venues EuroCCP clears for are netted into a single settlement obligation and a single margin requirement.

In 2010, EuroCCP will extend its services to clear over-the-counter equities trades for institutional clients. This service will be offered in collaboration with Omgeo, a trade affirmation and confirmation service for buy-side firms and their intermediaries.

EuroCCP at present clears equities from issuers in 19 markets, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and the United States. In addition, EuroCCP clears, through Euroclear, the most liquid European-listed Depositary Receipts that are traded on the venues it serves as well as certain Exchange-Traded Currency issues (Currency ETCs). The securities are traded in nine different currencies: the euro, British pound, U.S. dollar, Swiss franc, Danish krone, Swedish krona, Norwegian krone, Hungarian forint, and Czech koruna.

The list of securities, markets, and currencies EuroCCP clears grows as more trading venues appoint EuroCCP and as these venues trade more securities issues.

Prospective customers should contact EuroCCP to discuss participation in EuroCCP.

EuroCCP offers two categories of participation: General Clearing Participants clear for themselves as well as for other trading firms that are not EuroCCP participants, while Individual Clearing Participants clear only their own trades.

Since EuroCCP is a regulated market infrastructure whose role in the financial markets is centralised counterparty risk management, there are minimum criteria to become a customer, or "Clearing Participant," of EuroCCP. Firms that do not meet the minimum criteria, or who wish to outsource clearing to another firm, can access EuroCCP's services through a large number of EuroCCP General Clearing Participants who provide an intermediary service.

In brief, a Clearing Participant of EuroCCP must be a corporation, partnership or other business organization regulated under the securities and/or banking legislation of a country in the European Economic Area or any other country acceptable to EuroCCP. A Clearing Participant must meet minimum capital requirements, and be able to meet operational requirements and have a satisfactory history of compliance with its regulator.