Exercise / Assignment

Clearing Participants may clear options trades which are either American-style or European-style. American-style options can be exercised by the clearing participants before the expiration date; this is referred to as an early exercise. Clearing members can instruct ICE Clear Netherlands to exercise such an option through the electronic means made available to the Clearing Participant (GUI). The exercise deadline is 19:45h CET. At end of day, ICE Clear Netherlands will assign randomly the short positions for the number of contracts that are exercised during the day.

Expiration

All derivatives positions that are held to the expiration date will be automatically exercised by ICE Clear Netherlands if the derivatives are in-the-money. All out-of-the-money or at-the-money series will expire. Clearing participants can instruct ICE Clear Netherlands to exercise out-of-the-money or at-the-money series through the electronic means made available to the Clearing Participant (GUI). If clearing participants prefer their in-the-money series not to be exercised on the expiration date, they can send an abandonment instruction to ICE Clear Netherlands through the electronic means made available to the Clearing Participant (GUI). Both types of instruction must reach ICE Clear Netherlands before 19.45h. Once the deadline has passed, ICE Clear Netherlands will assign the short positions for the number of contracts that are exercised.

Reporting

ICE Clear Netherlands makes a range of reports and data files available to clearing participants. The reporting files contain all required information both in printable statements as well as in data files for further processing. All transactions and positions, as well as the settlement instructions and money movements, are reported in these files. ICE Clear Netherlands also makes a full set of risk reports available before midnight on the trade date to provide insight into margin requirements and the risk situation of open positions.

Settlement

Settlement, as a result of exercise and assignment, is undertaken at the local central securities depository (CSD). ICE Clear Netherlands uses the services of settlement agents and/or account operators to operate the CSD accounts. Our current settlement agent is CITI Bank N.A. Net settlements are treated as OTC transactions in the local CSDs, while regular DVP/RVP instructions are generally communicated to the CSD.

Transfers

ICE Clear Netherlands offers a service to transfer derivatives positions within the account structure of the clearing member (internal transfers) or between clearing members (external transfers).

Internal Transfers

Transfers between accounts of a single trading participant or between two trading participants of the same clearing participant will be supported by ICE Clear Netherlands as long as the final beneficial owner is not changed. In order to transfer, the clearing member will need to instruct ICE Clear Netherlands through the electronic means made available to the Clearing Participant (GUI). Transfers of options will be handled free of charge.

External Transfers

Transfers between trading participants of different clearing participants will be supported by ICE Clear Netherlands as long as the final beneficial owner is not changed. In order to transfer, both clearing participants must instruct ICE Clear Netherlands through the electronic means made available to the Clearing Participant (GUI). These transfers will be matched within ICE Clear Netherlands. Transfers of options will be handled free of charge.