Clearing Operations

Nasdaq Clearing

Nasdaq Clearing is authorized and supervised under EMIR as a multi-asset clearinghouse by the SFSA and is authorized to conduct clearing operations in Norway by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance. The clearinghouse acts as the CCP for exchange and OTC trades in equity derivatives, fixed income derivatives, resale and repurchase contracts, power derivatives, emission allowance derivatives, freight and fuel oil derivatives, iron ore derivatives and seafood derivatives.

Through our clearing operations in the financial markets, which include the resale and repurchase market, the commodities markets, and the seafood market, Nasdaq Clearing is the legal counterparty for, and guarantees the fulfillment of, each contract cleared. These contracts are not used by Nasdaq Clearing for the purpose of trading on its own behalf. As the legal counterparty of each transaction, Nasdaq Clearing bears the counterparty risk between the purchaser and seller in the contract. In its guarantor role, Nasdaq Clearing has precisely equal and offsetting claims to and from clearing members on opposite sides of each contract, standing as the CCP on every contract cleared. In accordance with the rules and regulations of Nasdaq Clearing, clearing members’ open positions are aggregated to create a single portfolio for which default fund and margin collateral requirements are calculated. See “Default Fund Contributions and Margin Deposits” below for further discussion of Nasdaq Clearing’s default fund and margin requirements.

Nasdaq Clearing maintains four member sponsored default funds: one related to financial markets, one related to commodities markets, one related to the seafood market, and a mutualized fund. Under this structure, Nasdaq Clearing and its clearing members must contribute to the total regulatory capital related to the clearing operations of Nasdaq Clearing. This structure applies an initial separation of default fund contributions for the financial, commodities and seafood markets in order to create a buffer for each market’s counterparty risks. Simultaneously, a mutualized default fund provides capital efficiencies to Nasdaq Clearing’s members with regard to total regulatory capital required. See “Default Fund Contributions” below for further discussion of Nasdaq Clearing’s default fund. Power of assessment and a liability waterfall also have been implemented. See “Power of Assessment” and “Liability Waterfall” below for further discussion. These requirements ensure the alignment of risk between Nasdaq Clearing and its clearing members.

Default Fund Contributions and Margin Deposits

As of March 31, 2017, clearing member default fund contributions and margin deposits were as follows:



	March 31, 2017
	Cash Contributions		Non-Cash Contributions		Total Contributions
	(in millions)
Default fund contributions	$	334	$	99	$	433
Margin deposits	3,299		3,646		6,945
Total	$	3,633	$	3,745	$	7,378

In accordance with its investment policy, of the total cash contributions of $3,633 million, Nasdaq Clearing has invested cash contributions of $576 million in reverse repurchase agreements and $1,610 million in highly rated European, and to a lesser extent, U.S. government debt securities or central bank certificates. The remainder of this balance is held in cash. Of the total default fund contributions of $433 million, Nasdaq Clearing can utilize $370 million as capital resources in the event of a counterparty default. The remaining balance of $63 million pertains to member posted surplus balances.

Default Fund Contributions

Contributions made to the default funds are proportional to the exposures of each clearing member. When a clearing member is active in more than one market, contributions must be made to all markets’ default funds in which the member is active. Clearing members’ eligible contributions may include cash and non-cash contributions. Cash contributions received are held in cash or invested by Nasdaq Clearing, in accordance with its investment policy, either in highly rated government debt securities, time deposits, central bank certificates or reverse repurchase agreements with highly rated government debt securities as collateral. Nasdaq Clearing maintains and manages all cash deposits related to margin collateral. All risks and rewards of collateral ownership, including interest, belong to Nasdaq Clearing. Clearing members’ cash contributions are included in default funds and margin deposits in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as both a current asset and a current liability. Non-cash contributions include highly rated government debt securities that must meet specific criteria approved by Nasdaq Clearing. Non-cash contributions are pledged assets that are not recorded in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as Nasdaq Clearing does not take legal ownership of these assets and the risks and rewards remain with the clearing members. These balances may fluctuate over time due to changes in the amount of deposits required and whether members choose to provide cash or non-cash contributions. Assets pledged are held at a nominee account in Nasdaq Clearing’s name for the benefit of the clearing members and are immediately accessible by Nasdaq Clearing in the event of a default. In addition to clearing members’ required contributions to the liability waterfall, Nasdaq Clearing is also required to contribute capital to the liability waterfall and overall regulatory capital as specified under its clearinghouse rules. As of March 31, 2017, Nasdaq Clearing committed capital totaling $115 million to the liability waterfall and overall regulatory capital, in the form of government debt securities, which are recorded as financial investments, at fair value in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. The combined regulatory capital of the clearing members and Nasdaq Clearing will serve to secure the obligations of a clearing member and may be used to cover losses sustained by a clearing member in the event of a default.

Margin Deposits

Nasdaq Clearing requires all clearing members to provide collateral, which may consist of cash and non-cash contributions, to guarantee performance on the clearing members’ open positions, or initial margin. In addition, clearing members must also provide collateral to cover the daily margin call if needed. See “Default Fund Contributions” above for further discussion of cash and non-cash contributions.

Similar to default fund contributions, Nasdaq Clearing maintains and manages all cash deposits related to margin collateral. All risks and rewards of collateral ownership, including interest, belong to Nasdaq Clearing. These cash deposits are recorded in default funds and margin deposits in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as both a current asset and current liability. Pledged margin collateral is not recorded in our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as all risks and rewards of collateral ownership, including interest, belong to the counterparty. Assets pledged are held at a nominee account in Nasdaq Clearing’s name for the benefit of the clearing members and are immediately accessible by Nasdaq Clearing in the event of a default.

Nasdaq Clearing marks to market all outstanding contracts and requires payment from clearing members whose positions have lost value. The mark-to-market process helps identify any clearing members that may not be able to satisfy their financial obligations in a timely manner allowing Nasdaq Clearing the ability to mitigate the risk of a clearing member defaulting due to exceptionally large losses. In the event of a default, Nasdaq Clearing can access the defaulting member’s margin deposits to cover the defaulting member’s losses.

Regulatory Capital and Risk Management Calculations

Nasdaq Clearing manages risk through a comprehensive counterparty risk management framework, which is comprised of policies, procedures, standards and financial resources. The level of regulatory capital is determined in accordance with Nasdaq Clearing’s regulatory capital policy, as approved by the SFSA. Regulatory capital calculations are continuously updated through a proprietary capital-at-risk calculation model that establishes the appropriate level of capital.

As mentioned above, Nasdaq Clearing is the legal counterparty for each contract traded and thereby guarantees the fulfillment of each contract. Nasdaq Clearing accounts for this guarantee as a performance guarantee. We determine the fair value of the performance guarantee by considering daily settlement of contracts and other margining and default fund requirements, the risk management program, historical evidence of default payments, and the estimated probability of potential default payouts. The calculation is determined using proprietary risk management software that simulates gains and losses based on historical market prices, extreme but plausible market scenarios, volatility and other factors present at that point in time for those particular unsettled contracts. Based on this analysis, the estimated liability was nominal and no liability was recorded as of March 31, 2017.

The market value of derivative contracts outstanding prior to netting was as follows:



	March 31, 2017
	(in millions)
Commodity and seafood options, futures and forwards^(1)(2)(3)	$	550
Fixed-income options and futures⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾	743
Stock options and futures⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾	132
Index options and futures⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾	101
Total	$	1,526

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⁽¹⁾	We determined the fair value of our option contracts using standard valuation models that were based on market-based observable inputs including implied volatility, interest rates and the spot price of the underlying instrument.


⁽²⁾	We determined the fair value of our futures contracts based upon quoted market prices and average quoted market yields.


⁽³⁾	We determined the fair value of our forward contracts using standard valuation models that were based on market-based observable inputs including LIBOR rates and the spot price of the underlying instrument.

The total number of derivative contracts cleared through Nasdaq Clearing for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 2016 was as follows:



	March 31, 2017	March 31, 2016
Commodity and seafood options, futures and forwards⁽¹⁾	726,739	907,921
Fixed-income options and futures	5,158,237	4,368,986
Stock options and futures	7,383,538	8,303,721
Index options and futures	11,315,176	14,685,731
Total	24,583,690	28,266,359

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(1)	The total volume in cleared power related to commodity contracts was 379 Terawatt hours (TWh) for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and 420 TWh for the three months ended March 31, 2016.

The outstanding contract value of resale and repurchase agreements was $6.3 billion as of March 31, 2017 and $6.4 billion at March 31, 2016. The total number of contracts cleared was 1,979,972 for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and was 1,820,753 for the three months ended March 31, 2016.

Power of Assessment

To further strengthen the contingent financial resources of the clearinghouse, Nasdaq Clearing has power of assessment that provides the ability to collect additional funds from its clearing members to cover a defaulting member’s remaining obligations up to the limits established under the terms of the clearinghouse rules. The power of assessment corresponds to 100.0% of the clearing member’s aggregate contribution to the financial, commodities and seafood markets’ default funds.

Liability Waterfall

The liability waterfall is the priority order in which the capital resources would be utilized in the event of a default where the defaulting clearing member’s collateral would not be sufficient to cover the cost to settle its portfolio. If a default occurs and the defaulting clearing member’s collateral, including cash deposits and pledged assets, is depleted, then capital is utilized in the following amount and order:


•	junior capital contributed by Nasdaq Clearing, which totaled $18 million at March 31, 2017;


•	a loss sharing pool related only to the financial market that is contributed to by clearing members and only applies if the defaulting member’s portfolio includes interest rate swap products;


•	specific market default fund where the loss occurred (i.e., the financial, commodities, or seafood market), which includes capital contributions of the clearing members on a pro-rata basis;


•	senior capital contributed to each specific market by Nasdaq Clearing, calculated in accordance with clearinghouse rules, which totaled $28 million at March 31, 2017; and


•	mutualized default fund, which includes capital contributions of the clearing members on a pro-rata basis.

If additional funds are needed after utilization of the mutualized default fund, then Nasdaq Clearing will utilize its power of assessment and additional capital contributions will be required by non-defaulting members up to the limits established under the terms of the clearinghouse rules.