The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC)

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The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) The Foundation for Secure Markets The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization.

Founded in 1973, OCC is dedicated to promoting stability and market integrity by delivering clearing and settlement services for options, futures and securities lending transactions. As a Systemically Important Financial Market Utility (SIFMU), OCC operates under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. OCC has more than 100 clearing members and provides central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services to 20 exchanges and trading platforms.

10/22/2026

It's rarely the big moment that earns trust. It's the thousand small ones that came before it.

Thomas Wasilowski on showing up fully, every day — and why consistency is the real work behind secure markets.

🎥 Watch below and see the full video here: https://bit.ly/4ji6RUX

Cheers to a great week at ISLA Americas 3rd Annual Securities Finance & Collateral Management Conference. Harsh Devpura,...
10/20/2026

Cheers to a great week at ISLA Americas 3rd Annual Securities Finance & Collateral Management Conference. Harsh Devpura, Director, Securities Finance, and Nathan Ice, Managing Director, Treasury, Collateral Services & Securities Financing, and Mike Nowak, Chief Financial Officer represented OCC at the event in Key Biscayne.

💼You may not know this, but OCC does securities lending. OCC is best known for clearing options, but since 1993 we've also offered Clearing Members a centrally cleared way to lend and borrow securities.

Three decades ago, the program was a small tool to help options traders and market makers run riskless reverse conversions or hedge against their options portfolio. Today it clears tens of thousands of loan positions daily. Daily loan value has grown from roughly $36 billion in 2013 to around $245 billion, and participation has grown from 53 firms to 79. The direction of travel is consistent: more activity, more participants, and more of the securities financing market moving onto cleared, guaranteed rails.

Much of that growth comes down to capital efficiency. Clearing through a qualifying CCP can deliver, on average, 90-95% in risk-weighted asset savings compared to uncleared lending. It also replaces a web of bilateral relationships with a single connection to OCC.

OCC is proud to support both Cboe’s and NYSE's launch of extended-hours trading for multi-listed single-stock and ETF op...
10/19/2026

OCC is proud to support both Cboe’s and NYSE's launch of extended-hours trading for multi-listed single-stock and ETF options.

Here’s what to know:

⏱️This is another step forward for OCC in supporting extended trading hours. OCC’s existing extended-hours clearing for index options has supported Cboe’s Global Trading Hours sessions for more than ten years.

⏱️Following SEC approval, new pre-market and after-hours sessions help participants respond to news and manage risk outside traditional trading hours.

⏱️Starting today, OCC will clear trades during these sessions with the same rigorous risk management and operational resilience participants rely on during regular hours.

As the central clearinghouse for U.S. listed derivatives, OCC remains committed to supporting the continued growth and evolution of the markets it serves.

OCC hosted a 2026 Election Outlook lunch with David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at The Cook Political...
10/19/2026

OCC hosted a 2026 Election Outlook lunch with David Wasserman, senior editor and elections analyst at The Cook Political Report and a contributor to NBC News. 🗳️

David is one of the nation's most respected election forecasters, known for his data-driven work on U.S. House races and his expertise in redistricting. He gave our colleagues a sharp look at where the 2026 midterms stand and what's driving the battle for Congress.

Events like this help us stay informed on the political landscape that helps shape our work. Thank you to David for his time and insight, and to everyone who joined in person and virtually.

Pictured below is Jim Hall, OCC's head of government relations, alongside David Wasserman, and Laura Salameh, principal, government relations, for OCC.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the ProSight Chief Compliance Officers Roundtable! OCC was proud to host complia...
10/15/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the ProSight Chief Compliance Officers Roundtable! OCC was proud to host compliance leaders from across the financial services industry at our Chicago headquarters for a day of candid peer conversation.

With compliance risk continuing to rise, driven by new interpretations of existing guidelines, proposed regulatory changes, faster product innovation, and shifting consumer preferences, this roundtable gave Chief Compliance Officers and their delegates a dedicated space to:

🔹 Connect with CCO peers facing similar challenges
🔹 Discuss the current compliance environment
🔹 Share best practices to strengthen the value of compliance programs at their institutions

Conversations like these help the industry meet an evolving environment with confidence.

🎓 OCC Internship Applications Are Now Live!We're looking for interns who are eager to learn, humble enough to ask questi...
10/12/2026

🎓 OCC Internship Applications Are Now Live!

We're looking for interns who are eager to learn, humble enough to ask questions, and ready to think critically about complex problems.

The OCC Internship Program equips students with the real-world skills needed to transition successfully into a career in financial services. As an intern, you'll contribute to meaningful projects, applying your skills and knowledge to real challenges facing the business. Your time with us is a genuine opportunity to make an impact on the future of OCC!

We currently have openings across both of our internship tracks:

☀️ Summer Internship Program
A 12-week opportunity running either May–August or June–September. Open to undergraduate and graduate students actively enrolled at a college or university. Interns work up to 40 hours/week in a hybrid environment (overtime not permitted).

📅 Year-Round Internship Program
A 12-month opportunity running January–December. Open to undergraduate and graduate students actively enrolled at a college or university. Interns work up to 20 hours/week during the school year and up to 40 hours/week in summer, subject to a 1,000-hour cap. Hybrid environment (overtime not permitted).

Apply or share with someone who should: https://lnkd.in/ggb3wFKS

OCC is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

OCC cleared more than 1.49 billion options and futures contracts during September 2026, while year-to-date average daily...
10/10/2026

OCC cleared more than 1.49 billion options and futures contracts during September 2026, while year-to-date average daily total volume of options and futures increased 20.5% to 70.8 million contracts. That’s a total volume increase of 6.1% year over year. https://bit.ly/47cdEbn

Key highlights include:

• ETF options continued to exceed 2025 volumes. September 2026 volume increased 37.9% YOY to more than 642 million contracts, with year-to-date average daily volume also up 35.4%.

• YOY growth extended for index options. September 2026 volume rose 21.9% YOY to more than 137 million index option contracts, while year-to-date average daily volume increased 29.3%.

• Securities-lending loan value continued to increase despite fewer transactions. Average daily loan value for market loans and hedges rose 16.8% to approximately $230.9 billion, while total transactions decreased 1.4% year over year, continuing the trend seen in August.

🥎 Batter up! Another year of our annual Compliance vs. Internal Audit softball game is in the books.What started as a li...
10/08/2026

🥎 Batter up! Another year of our annual Compliance vs. Internal Audit softball game is in the books.

What started as a lighthearted rivalry between our Compliance and Internal Audit teams has grown into one of OCC's favorite traditions in our Chicago office.

Instead of playing by department, we split into four cross-functional teams. Each team picks a name, designs a jersey, and plays alongside colleagues they might not work with day to day. It's been a great way to build connections across the organization — turns out nothing breaks down silos like arguing over a strike call.

Teams face off in round one, and the two winners battle it out for the championship and our rotating trophy, which travels to winners' desks.

Here's to many more years of friendly competition. ⚾

OCC welcomes IEX Options as its newest participant exchange. IEX Options, a new options exchange from Investors Exchange...
10/05/2026

OCC welcomes IEX Options as its newest participant exchange.

IEX Options, a new options exchange from Investors Exchange (IEX), marks OCC's first clearing relationship with IEX and brings OCC's total participant venues to 20 options exchanges, 2 futures exchanges, and one stock loan exchange.

As the central clearinghouse for U.S. listed derivatives, OCC remains committed to supporting the continued growth of the exchanges and platforms it serves.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4hIOaHt

We're hiring! 🚀 OCC's Enterprise Quality Engineering team is seeking a performance testing expert to ensure our mission-...
10/05/2026

We're hiring! 🚀 OCC's Enterprise Quality Engineering team is seeking a performance testing expert to ensure our mission-critical clearing, risk, and settlement systems meet the highest standards of reliability and speed.

The opportunity: Lead Associate Principal, Software Engineering: Performance Testing & Failover Engineering – We're seeking someone who's passionate about designing and executing comprehensive performance and failover testing strategies across multi-region cloud and hybrid architectures.

You might be right for this if:
✓ You have 7+ years hands-on experience in performance testing and engineering, including complex load and failover scenarios
✓ You're skilled at designing DR testing across multi-region architectures using LoadRunner, JMeter, Gatling, and Python/Java automation
✓ You care about regulatory compliance—validating RTO/RPO targets and ensuring performance SLAs meet PGP and financial market infrastructure requirements
✓ You thrive in a collaborative environment mentoring QE engineers and partnering with DevOps and infrastructure teams

Bonus points:
🌟 5+ years designing and executing failover/DR testing in AWS, Kubernetes, and containerized environments
🌟 Deep hands-on experience with Kafka producer/consumer performance testing and multi-region data consistency validation
🌟 Proficiency with APM/observability platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, AppDynamics) and CI/CD integration (Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
🌟 Background in financial clearing, settlement, or other highly regulated, low-latency systems
🌟 AWS certification or performance engineering certification

Ready to grow with us? Check out the full job description and apply today! Link in comments or https://www.theocc.com/careers

Address

125 S. Franklin Street Suite 1200
Chicago, IL
60606

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+13123226200

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