Applicants for ICE Clear Europe membership are required under ICE Clear Europe's Clearing Rules to meet certain membership criteria (detailed in Rule 201(a)) at the time of application and thereafter whilst a clearing member. Membership requirements include, amongst other things:
- holding sufficient capital;
- being party to a Clearing Membership Agreement;
- holding all necessary regulatory authorisations, licenses, permissions and approvals;
- it and its directors and officers being fit and proper;
- having appropriate technical and operational systems and controls;
- having appropriate business continuity procedures;
- being able to meet margin requirements;
- having contributed to the Guaranty Fund as appropriate; and
- not being subject to insolvency or other event of default.
Each clearing member will be obliged to sign a Clearing Member Agreement with the clearing house which will include provisions pursuant to which the clearing house's rules become contractually binding to both the clearing member and clearing house. In addition, specific obligations to comply with relevant membership criteria and other membership obligations, to meet margin and Guaranty Fund requirements and to post collateral, will be included in the agreement. The clearing member will also be required to enter into appropriate "give-up" agreements with its customers pursuant to which it becomes party to, and solely liable to the clearing house in respect of, contracts that it will clear and guarantee on behalf of non-clearing ICE Futures Europe members and ICE participants.
Applications for clearing membership must be made in writing using ICE Clear Europe's standard documentation. Upon receipt of an application, ICE Clear Europe's Membership Team will liaise with the applicant to ensure that the application is complete and will undertake a due diligence exercise. Each application will be considered by the Risk Committee, which will have delegated authority from the Board to approve or reject such application with a right of appeal due to the applicant in the event of a rejection.
If you have any queries or require any further information, please e-mail: ICE Clear Europe Membership
Category 1 Clearing Members
In accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories (EMIR), ESMA shall maintain a Public Register to inform market participants on the clearing obligation. The details to be included in the Public Register are further specified in Article 8 of the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 149/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 2012 on inter alia the clearing obligation and the public register, which provides in Section 3.2 (Table 7) the dates from which the clearing obligation takes effect for Index CDS.
As a relevant authorised CCP, ICE Clear Europe is obliged to publish a details, as specified by ESMA, of market participants defined as Category 1 by Article 2 of the Clearing Obligation here.