46290 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Notices 

26 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(57). 

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

2 17 CFR 240.19b–4. 

3Partial Amendment No. 1 amended the filing to 

delete from the filed Exhibit 5B, Clearing 

Membership Procedures, certain statements in 

sections 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 of such Procedures 

concerning the termination of clearing membership 

by a Clearing Member. Specifically, ICE Clear 

Europe proposes to remove the statements that it 

will define a minimum notice period and may 

publish a Circular confirming that a Termination 

Notice has been issued, because the appropriate 

minimum notice period and requirements for 

publishing a Circular are set forth in existing 

Clearing Rule 209, which is not proposed to be 

amended. 

4Capitalized terms used but not defined herein 

have the meanings specified in the ICE Clear 

Europe Clearing Rules (the ‘‘Rules’’). 

All submissions should refer to File 

Number SR–NYSEArca–2021–29. This 

file number should be included on the 

subject line if email is used. To help the 

Commission process and review your 

comments more efficiently, please use 

only one method. The Commission will 

post all comments on the Commission’s 

internet website (http://www.sec.gov/ 

rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the 

submission, all subsequent 

amendments, all written statements 

with respect to the proposed rule 

change that are filed with the 

Commission, and all written 

communications relating to the 

proposed rule change between the 

Commission and any person, other than 

those that may be withheld from the 

public in accordance with the 

provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be 

available for website viewing and 

printing in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20549 on official 

business days between the hours of 

10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of the 

filing also will be available for 

inspection and copying at the principal 

office of the Exchange. All comments 

received will be posted without change. 

Persons submitting comments are 

cautioned that we do not redact or edit 

personal identifying information from 

comment submissions. You should 

submit only information that you wish 

to make available publicly. All 

submissions should refer to File 

Number SR–NYSEArca–2021–29 and 

should be submitted by September 8, 

2021. Rebuttal comments should be 

submitted by September 22, 2021. 

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated 

authority.26

J. Matthew DeLesDernier, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2021–17669 Filed 8–17–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–92652; File No. SR–ICEEU– 

2021–014] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; ICE 

Clear Europe Limited; Notice of Filing 

of Proposed Rule Change, as Modified 

by Partial Amendment No. 1, Relating 

to the ICE Clear Europe Clearing 

Membership Policy and Clearing 

Membership Procedures 

August 12, 2021. 

Pursuant to Section 19(b)(1) of the 

Securities Exchange Act of 1934 

(‘‘Act’’),1 and Rule 19b–4 thereunder,2

notice is hereby given that on August 2, 

2021, ICE Clear Europe Limited (‘‘ICE 

Clear Europe’’ or the ‘‘Clearing House’’) 

filed with the Securities and Exchange 

Commission (‘‘Commission’’) the 

proposed rule changes described in 

Items I, II and III below, which Items 

have been prepared primarily by ICE 

Clear Europe. On August 11, 2021, ICE 

Clear Europe filed Partial Amendment 

No. 1 to the proposed rule change.3 The 

Commission is publishing this notice to 

solicit comments on the proposed rule 

change, as modified by Partial 

Amendment No. 1 (hereafter referred to 

as the ‘‘proposed rule change’’), from 

interested persons. 

I. Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Terms of Substance of the Proposed 

Rule Change 

ICE Clear Europe proposes to adopt a 

new Clearing Membership Policy (the 

‘‘Policy’’) and new Clearing 

Membership Procedures (the 

‘‘Procedures’’, and collectively with the 

Policy, the ‘‘Documents’’). The revisions 

would not involve any changes to the 

ICE Clear Europe Clearing Rules.4

II. Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the 

Proposed Rule Change 

In its filing with the Commission, ICE 

Clear Europe included statements 

concerning the purpose of and basis for 

the proposed rule change and discussed 

any comments it received on the 

proposed rule change. The text of these 

statements may be examined at the 

places specified in Item IV below. ICE 

Clear Europe has prepared summaries, 

set forth in sections (A), (B), and (C) 

below, of the most significant aspects of 

such statements. 

(A) Clearing Agency’s Statement of the 

Purpose of, and Statutory Basis for, the 

Proposed Rule Change 

(a) Purpose 

ICE Clear Europe is proposing to 

adopt the new Policy and Procedures to 

consolidate and summarize its existing 

clearing membership criteria and to 

document certain existing processes and 

procedures concerning the membership 

application process. 

Clearing Membership Policy 

ICE Clear Europe is proposing to 

adopt the new Policy which would 

describe its clearing membership 

criteria (which are set forth in full detail 

in the Rules). The Policy would not 

change existing membership criteria. 

The Policy would also address related 

processes for assessing applicants for 

membership, variations of permissions 

and termination of membership. 

The Policy would describe clearing 

membership criteria, starting with a 

description of the objectives, which 

accounts for membership risk and 

ensures that such risks are properly 

managed and that admission criteria is 

non-discriminatory, transparent and 

objective to ensure fair and open access, 

as well as consistent with relevant 

regulatory requirements. The Policy 

would describe how these objectives are 

met through setting and monitoring 

appropriate membership criteria, 

establishing a due diligence process and 

requiring notifications regarding 

changes to Clearing Member business. 

The core clearing membership criteria, 

including holding sufficient capital, 

being a party to a Clearing Membership 

Agreement and others, would be 

summarized in the Policy (with the full 

criteria set out in Rule 201 and the CDS 

Procedures). 

The Policy would provide that ICE 

Clear Europe has established processes 

for clearing membership application, 

permission variations and clearing 

membership termination which are set 

out in further detail in the Procedures. 

The Policy would also address 

monitoring in respect of membership 

criteria, including periodic in-depth 

counterparty reviews, periodic review of 

financial positions and use of its 


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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Notices 46291 

5 15 U.S.C. 78q–1. 

6 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

7 15 U.S.C. 78q–1(b)(3)(F). 

8 17 CFR 240.17Ad–22(e)(3)(i)–(ii). The rule states 

that ‘‘[e]ach covered clearing agency shall establish, 

implement, maintain and enforce written policies 

and procedures reasonably designed to, as 

applicable: [m]aintain a sound risk management 

framework for comprehensively managing legal, 

credit, liquidity, operational, general business, 

investment, custody, and other risks that arise in or 

are borne by the covered clearing agency, which: 

(i) Includes risk management policies, 

procedures, and systems designed to identify, 

measure, monitor, and manage the range of risks 

that arise in or are borne by the covered clearing 

agency, that are subject to review on a specified 

periodic basis and approved by the board of 

directors annually;’’ 

9 17 CFR 240.17 Ad–22(b)(7). The rule states that 

‘‘[a] registered clearing agency that performs central 

counterparty services shall establish, implement, 

maintain and enforce written policies and 

procedures reasonably designed to: 

. . . 

(7) Provide a person that maintains net capital 

equal to or greater than $50 million with the ability 

to obtain membership at the clearing agency, 

provided that such persons are able to comply with 

other reasonable membership standards, with any 

net capital requirements being scalable so that they 

are proportional to the risks posed by the 

Continued 

counterparty rating system, 

maintenance of a watch list, requiring 

an annual member return, and other 

operational monitoring. 

The Policy would also provide 

arrangements for breach management, 

ongoing reviews and exception 

handling. This section is consistent with 

other ICE Clear Europe policies and 

governance processes. In particular, it 

would provide that (i) the document 

owner would be responsible for 

ensuring that documents remain up-todate and are reviewed in accordance 

with the Clearing House’s governance 

processes, (ii) the document owner 

would report material breaches or 

unapproved deviations from the 

Framework to their Head of Department, 

the Chief Risk Officer and the Head of 

Compliance (or their delegates) who 

would determine if further escalation 

would be made to relevant senior 

executives, the Board and/or competent 

authorities, and (iii) exceptions to the 

Policy would be approved in 

accordance with the Clearing House’s 

governance process for the approval of 

changes to such document. 

Procedures 

The Procedures would describe in 

further detail the processes for 

reviewing applications for clearing 

membership, variations of membership 

permissions, on-going monitoring and 

membership termination. The objective 

would be to establish a due diligence 

process to ensure applicants meet ICE 

Clear Europe membership criteria and, 

once members, provide notifications of 

any changes to their business that could 

impact their ability to meet the criteria. 

The Procedures would describe the 

Clearing Member application process, 

the consideration by relevant ICE Clear 

Europe departments, the process for 

approval or rejection of applications by 

the Executive Risk Committee under 

authority delegated by the Board and 

the right to appeal to the Board, 

additional membership conditions or 

criteria that the Clearing House may, at 

its discretion, require prior to approval 

and additional information requests that 

ICE Clear Europe may make during the 

application process. The Procedures 

would also describe the process for a 

Clearing Member to obtain membership 

to a different membership class and the 

procedure through which a Clearing 

Member may resign or be terminated by 

the Clearing House (both of which 

would be in accordance with Rule 209). 

The Procedures would detail the core 

membership requirements, which 

would include minimum capital 

requirements as well as a description of 

additional financial requirements ICE 

Clear Europe may impose and of certain 

aspects of the calculation of member 

capital, including the use of 

subordinated debt and controller 

guarantees where approved by ICE Clear 

Europe and the disallowance of certain 

assets from the calculation. The 

Procedures also reference Guaranty 

Fund contributions for CDS and F&O 

clearing services, including 

replenishments in the event of 

application of the funds; the margin-tocapital ratio requirement; (iv) default 

management capabilities; and (v) EOD 

price submissions (for CDS Clearing 

Members only) as required by the CDS 

EOD Price Discovery Policy. 

The Procedures would further provide 

for a description of ongoing monitoring 

which would include: (i) Periodic 

review of the financial position and 

compliance with the relevant 

membership requirements of each 

Clearing Member; (ii) quarterly review 

of Clearing Member capital situation 

and monthly review of FCM/BD 

Clearing Members; (iii) the quarterly 

counterparty rating system report, 

which aggregates risk factors covering 

credit, market price, liquidity and 

operational risk for each Clearing 

Member; (iv) the watch list highlighting 

Clearing Members with special risk 

situations; (v) annual member returns 

pursuant to which Clearing Members 

must provide certain information to ICE 

Clear Europe; (vi) daily monitoring of 

Clearing Member performance in 

relation to fulfilment of obligations to 

cover cash payments, margin collateral 

and Guaranty Fund contributions as 

well as delivery obligations. 

The Procedures would also set out the 

same governance requirements as those 

described above with respect to the 

Policy. 

(b) Statutory Basis 

ICE Clear Europe believes that the 

proposed amendments are consistent 

with the requirements of Section 17A of 

the Act 5 and the regulations thereunder 

applicable to it. In particular, Section 

17A(b)(3)(F) of the Act 6 requires, among 

other things, that the rules of a clearing 

agency be designed to promote the 

prompt and accurate clearance and 

settlement of securities transactions 

and, to the extent applicable, derivative 

agreements, contracts, and transactions, 

the safeguarding of securities and funds 

in the custody or control of the clearing 

agency or for which it is responsible, 

and the protection of investors and the 

public interest. The proposed 

Documents are intended generally to 

more clearly document and consolidate 

the Clearing House’s criteria for 

admitting and monitoring Clearing 

Members. In ICE Clear Europe’s view 

the new documentation would facilitate 

implementation of the Clearing House’s 

existing membership criteria as well as 

ongoing risk management with respect 

to Clearing Members by the Clearing 

House through monitoring of their 

particular situations. These 

amendments would therefore promote 

overall Clearing House risk management 

and facilitate the prompt and accurate 

clearing of cleared contracts and protect 

investors and the public interest in the 

sound operations of the Clearing House, 

consistent with the requirements of 

Section 17A(b)(3)(F).7 Further, the 

amendments will not affect the 

safeguarding of securities and funds in 

the custody or control of the Clearing 

House or for which it is responsible, 

within the meaning of Section 

17A(b)(3)(F). 

The proposed amendments to the 

Documents are further consistent with 

the risk management requirements of 

Rule 17Ad–22(e)(3)(i) 8 as they relate to 

clearing membership. As noted above, 

the amendments would formalize and 

consolidate membership application 

and monitoring processes to ensure that 

Clearing Members meet admission 

criteria upon initial membership and 

continue to meet such criteria 

throughout their membership. The 

amendments will facilitate the Clearing 

House’s ability to manage the potential 

risks posed by such Clearing Members. 

Rule 17Ad–22(b)(7) 9 requires clearing 

agencies to provide the ability to obtain 


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46292 Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 157 / Wednesday, August 18, 2021 / Notices 

participant’s activities to the clearing agency; 

provided, however, that the clearing agency may 

provide for a higher net capital requirement as a 

condition for membership at the clearing agency if 

the clearing agency demonstrates to the 

Commission that such a requirement is necessary to 

mitigate risks that could not otherwise be 

effectively managed by other measures and the 

Commission approves the higher net capital 

requirement as part of a rule filing or clearing 

agency registration application.’’ 

10 17 CFR 240.17 Ad–22(b)(7). 

11 17 CFR 240.17 Ad–22(e)(2). The rule states that 

‘‘[e]ach covered clearing agency shall establish, 

implement, maintain and enforce written policies 

and procedures reasonably designed to, as 

applicable: 

(2) Provide for governance arrangements that: 

(i) Are clear and transparent . . . 

(v) Specify clear and direct lines of responsibility 

. . .’’ 

12 17 CFR 240.17 Ad–22(e)(2). 13 17 CFR 200.30–3(a)(12). 

membership to persons that maintain 

net capital equal to or greater than $50 

million, providing such persons can 

comply with other reasonable 

membership standards and that any net 

capital requirements be scalable so that 

they are proportional to the risks posed 

by the member’s activities to the 

clearing agency. The Procedures do not 

change ICE Clear Europe’s existing 

membership and minimum capital 

standards in this regard, but more 

clearly document those requirements 

and the process for monitoring 

compliance. The amendments are thus 

consistent with Rule 17Ad–22(b)(7).10

Rule 17Ad–22(e)(2)(i) and (v) 11

requires clearing agencies to establish 

reasonably designed policies and 

procedures to provide for governance 

arrangements that are clear and 

transparent and specify clear and direct 

lines of responsibility. The proposed 

Documents clearly define the roles and 

responsibilities of the document owner, 

the Head of Department, the senior 

members of the Risk Oversight 

Department and the senior members of 

the Compliance Department, consistent 

with governance arrangement for other 

ICE Clear Europe policies and 

procedures. ICE Clear Europe believes 

that the amendments to the Documents 

are therefore consistent with the 

requirements of Rule 17Ad–22(e)(2)(i) 

and (v).12

(B) Clearing Agency’s Statement on 

Burden on Competition 

ICE Clear Europe does not believe the 

proposed Documents would have any 

impact, or impose any burden, on 

competition not necessary or 

appropriate in furtherance of the 

purposes of the Act. The Documents are 

not changing existing membership 

criteria and would apply uniformly to 

all Clearing Members. As a result, ICE 

Clear Europe does not believe the 

amendments would affect the cost of 

clearing for Clearing Members or other 

market participants, the market for 

cleared services generally or access to 

clearing by Clearing Members or other 

market participants, or otherwise affect 

competition among Clearing Members 

or market participants in a manner not 

necessary or appropriate in furtherance 

of the purposes of the Act. 

(C) Clearing Agency’s Statement on 

Comments on the Proposed Rule 

Change Received From Members, 

Participants or Others 

Written comments relating to the 

proposed Documents have not been 

solicited or received by ICE Clear 

Europe. ICE Clear Europe will notify the 

Commission of any written comments 

received with respect to the proposed 

rule change. 

III. Date of Effectiveness of the 

Proposed Rule Change and Timing for 

Commission Action 

Within 45 days of the date of 

publication of this notice in the Federal 

Register or within such longer period 

up to 90 days (i) as the Commission may 

designate if it finds such longer period 

to be appropriate and publishes its 

reasons for so finding or (ii) as to which 

the self-regulatory organization 

consents, the Commission will: 

(A) By order approve or disapprove 

the proposed rule change or 

(B) institute proceedings to determine 

whether the proposed rule change 

should be disapproved. 

IV. Solicitation of Comments 

Interested persons are invited to 

submit written data, views, and 

arguments concerning the foregoing, 

including whether the proposed rule 

change is consistent with the Act. 

Comments may be submitted by any of 

the following methods: 

Electronic Comments 

• Use the Commission’s internet 

comment form (http://www.sec.gov/ 

rules/sro.shtml) or 

• Send an email to rule-comments@

sec.gov. Please include File Number SR– 

ICEEU–2021–014 on the subject line. 

Paper Comments 

• Send paper comments in triplicate 

to Secretary, Securities and Exchange 

Commission, 100 F Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20549–1090. 

All submissions should refer to File 

Number SR–ICEEU–2021–014. This file 

number should be included on the 

subject line if email is used. To help the 

Commission process and review your 

comments more efficiently, please use 

only one method. The Commission will 

post all comments on the Commission’s 

internet website (http://www.sec.gov/ 

rules/sro.shtml). Copies of the 

submission, all subsequent 

amendments, all written statements 

with respect to the proposed rule 

change that are filed with the 

Commission, and all written 

communications relating to the 

proposed rule change between the 

Commission and any person, other than 

those that may be withheld from the 

public in accordance with the 

provisions of 5 U.S.C. 552, will be 

available for website viewing and 

printing in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room, 100 F Street NE, 

Washington, DC 20549, on official 

business days between the hours of 

10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Copies of such 

filings will also be available for 

inspection and copying at the principal 

office of ICE Clear Europe and on ICE 

Clear Europe’s website at https://

www.theice.com/clear-europe/ 

regulation. All comments received will 

be posted without change. Persons 

submitting comments are cautioned that 

we do not redact or edit personal 

identifying information from comment 

submissions. You should submit only 

information that you wish to make 

available publicly. All submissions 

should refer to File Number SR–ICEEU– 

2021–014 and should be submitted on 

or before September 8, 2021. 

For the Commission, by the Division of 

Trading and Markets, pursuant to delegated 

authority.13

J. Matthew DeLesDernier, 

Assistant Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2021–17671 Filed 8–17–21; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 8011–01–P 

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE 

COMMISSION 

[Release No. 34–92651; File No. SR– 

NYSEArca–2021–28] 

Self-Regulatory Organizations; NYSE 

Arca, Inc.; Notice of Filing of 

Amendment No. 1 and Order Instituting 

Proceedings To Determine Whether To 

Approve or Disapprove a Proposed 

Rule Change, as Modified by 

Amendment No. 1, To List and Trade 

Shares of ConvexityShares Daily 1.5x 

SPIKES Futures ETF Under NYSE Arca 

Rule 8.200–E (Trust Issued Receipts) 

August 12, 2021. 

I. Introduction 

On May 13, 2021, NYSE Arca, Inc. 

(‘‘NYSE Arca’’ or ‘‘Exchange’’) filed 


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