Default Rules & Procedures

Chapter XI of OCC's Rules, published on this website, authorize OCC to expeditiously and flexibly deal with clearing member defaults. A general overview of the procedures embodied in these rules is provided in the attached PDF along with a separate description of OTC auction procedures, but these overviews are subject to the specific terms of the rules themselves. The term "rules" collectively refers to both OCC By-Laws and Rules and terms (capitalized or not) have the meaning given to them in the rules unless otherwise defined.

OCC Default Rules and Procedures (PDF)

OTC Options Auction Procedures (PDF)

Financial Resources

OCC manages credit risk by maintaining margin, Clearing Fund, and other resources that are sufficient to cover OCC’s credit exposure to clearing members and to cover a wide range of stress scenarios that includes the default of OCC’s two largest participants and their affiliates under extreme but plausible market conditions.

In accordance with public disclosure requirements⁽¹⁾, OCC reports the size and composition of the financial resource package available in the event of a clearing member default, as of the end of the most recent fiscal quarter as reported to the CFTC:

As of Mar 31, 2026

For additional information of OCC's total financial resources, please refer to OCC's most recent Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) quantitative disclosure.

(1) 17 CFR §39.21(c)(4)