2006 November

European Code of Conduct for Clearing and Settlement (“Code of Conduct”) signed by stock exchanges, central counterparties and central securities depositories. Signatories pledge to open up to competition through price transparency, access and interoperability.

 2007 March

EuroCCP won the mandate to clear for multilateral trading facility Turquoise, and commits to interoperability with other CCPs as requested by Turquoise.

 2008 March

EuroCCP obtains regulatory status from the Financial Services Authority as Recognised Clearing House. With an official status as a CCP, it immediately signed the Code of Conduct.

 2008 August

 EuroCCP went live clearing for Turquoise in 14 European equity markets.

 2009 April

 NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchanges agreed with market participants to introduce competitive clearing, offering choice of CCPs for firms trading on the Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm Stock Exchanges. Competitive clearing would require EMCF, the first CCP to clear for NASDAQ OMX Nordic Exchanges and in which it holds a 22% stake, to interoperate with others.

 2009 June

EuroCCP advocated an Interoperability Convention, a common agreement to be signed by interoperating CCPs which would be publicly disclosed and which would make transparent the risks with interoperability, harmonise inter-CCP risk management approaches, formalise common operations procedures, and provide for orderly change management processes.

The convention did not receive support from the other CCPs and EuroCCP proceeded to negotiate 3 bilateral interoperability arrangements with LCH.Clearnet Ltd., SIX x-clear, and EMCF respectively. Since these 3 CCPs also have bilateral agreements with each other, there were 6 agreements in negotiation simultaneously among the “4 CCPs”, each being commercially confidential to the two signatories.

 2009 October

The regulators of the 4 CCPs, i.e. the Financial Services Authority regulating EuroCCP and LCH.Clearnet Ltd., FINMA and Swiss National Bank regulating SIX x-clear, and AFM and Dutch National Bank regulating EMCF (“Joint Regulators”), advised the CCPs to suspend work on interoperability pending their review of inter-CCP risk management arrangements.

 2010 January

As Europe's securities regulators, equities central counterparties (CCPs) and trading firms work together to design a framework for interoperability between CCPs that is safe, scalable and sustainable, EuroCCP presents a white paper, “Recommendation for Reducing Risks Among Interoperating CCPs”. The paper discusses several options for reducing the liquidity and credit risks in multi-CCP links, with four key recommendations.

 2010 February

Joint Regulators issued inter-CCP risk management principles to the 4 CCPs working on interoperability. A key requirement was that any risk management arrangement be scalable regarding the volumes cleared, the number of CCPs interoperating, and the number of trading venues giving access to the interoperating CCPs.

 2010 March

EuroCCP organised a customer event on the theme of “The Future of Clearing”. The event was attended by stock exchanges, MTFs, and other interested market participants.

 2010 May

Joint Regulators issued further guidelines and requirements to the 4 CCPs. They also requested the CCPs to make known any commercially sensitive items in the 6 bilateral interoperability agreements that could not be disclosed to other regulators and market participants.

 2010 August

The 4 CCPs submitted their interoperability applications to their respective regulators.

 2010 October

 EuroCCP organised a customer event on the theme of “Interoperability and Beyond”. The event was attended by stock exchanges, MTFs, and other interested market participants.

 2010 December

 The FSA advised EuroCCP that Joint Regulators found the inter-CCP risk management arrangements proposed by the 4 CCPs to be conceptually sound, and issued more precise requirements on pre-go live and post-go live of interoperability.

 2011 January

 4 CCPs present their action plans to AFME (Association for Financial Markets in Europe) on implementing interoperability.

 2011 May

 LCH.Clearnet Ltd. and SIX x-clear announced they have received regulatory approval for interoperability under the new requirements. The 2 CCPs are expected to change their existing arrangements clearing for the London Stock Exchange to conform.

 2011 May

BATS Europe announced it will introduce competitive clearing by giving its trade feed access to EuroCCP, LCH.Clearnet Ltd. and SIX x-clear on an interoperable basis, to go live simultaneously in late July.

 2011 July

BATS Europe launches its Preferred Interoperable Clearing Service. Trading firms can designate one of three interoperating CCPs - EuroCCP, LCH.Clearnet Ltd. and SIX x-clear. If only one or neither party has selected a Preferred CCP, both sides of the trade go by default to EMCF, which does not interoperate with the others.

 2011 August

EuroCCP starts clearing for UBS MTF under interoperable arrangements.

 2011 August

Chi-X announced it will introduce full four-way clearing interoperability by opening its trade feed to EuroCCP, LCH.Clearnet Ltd. and SIX x-clear in January 2012. BATS Europe announced it will move from Preferred Interoperable Clearing Service to full interoperability with EMCF joining the group of interoperable CCPs from January 2012.

 2011 September

Turquoise announced it will introduce interoperability by opening its trade feed to CC&G, LCH. Clearnet Ltd. and SIX x-clear. The roll-out is expected to start in November 2011.

 2011 October

Nasdaq OMX Nordic announced it will introduce competitive clearing in April 2012 by opening its trade feed to EuroCCP and SIX x-clear. Burgundy announced it will introduce competitive clearing, starting from May 2012 with SIX x-clear.

 2012 January

Chi-X Europe and BATS Europe launch full four-way interoperability. All transactions executed on Chi-X Europe and BATS Europe can be cleared on an interoperable basis, except ETFs and Spanish stock. EMCF joins the group of interoperating CCPs; trading firms can therefore designate any of the four interoperating CCPs – EMCF, EuroCCP, LCH.Clearnet Ltd., SIX x-clear - and have all their transactions cleared by their CCP of choice. EuroCCP is the only CCP to be selected as CCP of choice by several clearing participants from the first day of the launch of full four-way interoperability.

 2012 March

NASDAQ OMX Nordic announces its decision to postpone the introduction of competitive clearing in the Nordic cash equity markets.