Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 177 / Thursday, September 14, 2023 / Notices 63149 

1 15 U.S.C. 78s(b)(1). 

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE Clear Europe 

Limited; Notice of Filing of Proposed Rule Change 

Relating to Amendments to Recovery Plan, 

Exchange Act Release No. 97955 (July 20, 2023); 88 

FR 48273 (July 26, 2023) (SR–ICEEU–2023–020) 

(‘‘Notice’’). 

4Capitalized terms not otherwise defined herein 

have the meanings assigned to them in the Plan or 

the ICE Clear Europe Clearing Rules. 

5Following the default of a Clearing Member, and 

if certain other conditions are satisfied, ICE Clear 

Europe Rule 909 allows ICE Clear Europe to assess 

Clearing Members for additional amounts as needed 

to resolve any shortfall resulting from the default. 

6Following the default of a Clearing Member, and 

if certain other conditions are satisfied, ICE Clear 

Europe Rule 914 allows ICE Clear Europe to reduce 

variation margin payments, as needed to retain cash 

and resolve any shortfall resulting from the default. 

7Following the default of a Clearing Member, and 

if certain other conditions are satisfied, ICE Clear 

Europe Rule 915 allows ICE Clear Europe to 

terminate open contracts that offset the defaulting 

Clearing Member’s open contracts. 

8See Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE Clear 

Europe Limited; Order Approving Proposed Rule 

Change Relating to the Capital Replenishment Plan, 

Exchange Act Release No. 97018 (Mar. 2, 2023); 88 

FR 14412 (Mar. 8, 2023) (SR–ICEEU–2022–027). 

9Notice, 88 FR at 48273. 

POSTAL SERVICE 

Product Change—Priority Mail 

Express, Priority Mail, and USPS 

Ground Advantage® Negotiated 

Service Agreement 

AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM. 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The Postal Service gives 

notice of filing a request with the Postal 

Regulatory Commission to add a 

domestic shipping services contract to 

the list of Negotiated Service 

Agreements in the Mail Classification 

Schedule’s Competitive Products List. 

DATES: Date of required notice: 

September 14, 2023. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Sean C. Robinson, 202–268–8405. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The 

United States Postal Service® hereby 

gives notice that, pursuant to 39 U.S.C. 

3642 and 3632(b)(3), on September 7, 

2023, it filed with the Postal Regulatory 

Commission a USPS Request to Add 

Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail & 

USPS Ground Advantage® Contract 7 to 

Competitive Product List. Documents 

are available at www.prc.gov, Docket 

Nos. MC2023–264, CP2023–267. 

Sean C. Robinson, 

Attorney, Corporate and Postal Business Law. 

[FR Doc. 2023–19833 Filed 9–13–23; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7710–12–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–98337; File No. SR–ICEEU– 

2023–020] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE 

Clear Europe Limited; Order Approving 

Proposed Rule Change Relating to 

Amendments to Recovery Plan 

September 8, 2023. 

I. Introduction 

On July 10, 2023, ICE Clear Europe 

Limited (‘‘ICE Clear Europe’’) filed with 

the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’), pursuant 

to section 19(b)(1) of the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘‘Act’’),1 and 

Rule 19b–4,2 a proposed rule change to 

amend its Recovery Plan (the ‘‘Plan’’). 

The proposed rule change was 

published for comment in the Federal 

Register on July 26, 2023.3 The 

Commission did not receive comments 

regarding the proposed rule change. For 

the reasons discussed below, the 

Commission is approving the proposed 

rule change. 

II. Description of the Proposed Rule 

Change 

A. Background 

ICE Clear Europe is registered with 

the Commission as a clearing agency for 

the purpose of clearing security-based 

swaps. In its role as a clearing agency 

for security-based swaps, ICE Clear 

Europe maintains the Plan.4 The Plan 

provides the relevant information, the 

steps to take, and the options available 

to restore ICE Clear Europe to normal 

operation and recover in the event of 

severe financial stress and losses. The 

Plan describes, among other things, the 

following information: (i) ICE Clear 

Europe’s critical services, service 

providers, and interdependencies; (ii) 

scenarios in which ICE Clear Europe 

may need to use the Plan, triggers for 

invoking the Plan in those scenarios, 

and early indicators of those scenarios; 

(iii) options for recovering from severe 

financial stress and losses; and (iv) 

decision-making, governance, and 

communications processes relevant to 

ICE Clear Europe’s recovery. 

The proposed rule change would 

make various updates and amendments 

to the Plan. ICE Clear Europe is making 

these changes to implement the results 

of internal and external reviews of the 

Plan. These changes are described 

below according to the section of the 

Plan in which they appear. 

A. Section 1, Executive Summary 

Section 1 summarizes the Plan. 

Among other things, Section 1 gives an 

overview of (i) ICE Clear Europe’s 

options for recovery as well as (ii) how 

it governs, tests, and reviews the Plan. 

Options for Recovery 

ICE Clear Europe’s options for 

recovery include tools that it could use 

to recover losses, such as powers of 

assessment,5 reduced gains 

distribution,6 and partial tear-ups.7

Currently, the Plan also lists as a 

recovery option ICE Clear Europe’s 

Capital Replenishment Framework. The 

proposed rule change would keep the 

reference to capital replenishment, but 

would rename it as the Capital 

Replenishment Plan, instead of 

Framework. ICE Clear Europe is making 

this particular change because it 

changed the name of the Capital 

Replenishment Framework to the 

Capital Replenishment Plan.8

Section 1 of the Plan also describes 

the coverage of ICE Clear Europe’s 

recovery options. Section 1 explains 

why ICE Clear Europe would be able to 

fully cover default losses, liquidity 

shortfalls, and investment losses, should 

it need to do so. With respect to default 

losses in particular, the Plan currently 

explains that with the use of partial tearups, ICE Clear Europe can eliminate 

variation margin obligations by, in 

effect, cancelling any remaining 

positions, and therefore default losses 

can be fully covered. The proposed rule 

change would keep this explanation, but 

it would delete the statement, 

‘‘Therefore default losses can be fully 

covered.’’ ICE Clear Europe is deleting 

this statement because it believes the 

statement is redundant considering the 

overall explanation that ICE Clear 

Europe would be able to fully cover 

default losses.9

Similar to the description of partial 

tear-ups, Section 1 of the Plan also 

describes the coverage of ICE Clear 

Europe’s powers of assessment. The 

Plan currently explains that under 

powers of assessment for its Futures and 

Options clearing service, ICE Clear 

Europe would have sufficient capital to 

cover all Clearing Members defaulting 

simultaneously under extreme but 

plausible market scenarios, meaning the 

maximum exposures from all Clearing 

Members with same directional 

positions defaulting simultaneously. 

Moreover, for its Credit Default Swap 

clearing service, the Plan currently 

describes the scenario in which ICE 

Clear Europe would exhaust its 


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