Settlement & Clearing

<- return home

Many individual investors were introduced to market structure anomalies because they had their “buy button turned off.” This was a multi-level failure of our complex market structure, from under-capitalized clearing brokers to flawed margin calculation cycles. It exposed an underbelly of markets that has remained opaque for too long, and has left many investors questioning the very heart of our markets and whether they actually own the shares that they have purchased. Current regulatory disclosures are inadequate to give the public confidence in the system, and inadequate to police systematic abuse of the system.

key issues

  • FTD Visibility: Failure To Deliver disclosures need to be updated more often, and include more information, including how and when FTDs are remediated, what type of counterparty is responsible for the failure (bucketed into clearing broker, exempt market maker or custodian), and how long the FTDs remained open.
  • Margin Transparency: Investors need visibility about estimated margin per security for Clearing Brokers.‍
  • Netting Transparency: Investors need disclosure of gross versus net notional or share count per security to help understand trading dynamics and discern the level of real investment versus intraday trading activity.

opportunities for advocacy

There are currently no active advocacy opportunities connected to this principle. If you would like to be updated as actionable issues arise, please subscribe to receive alerts below. If you have any advocacy opportunities that you would like us to explore, please email us!

Stay in the fight

The rules behind your trades change quietly. We'll make sure you hear about it.

Comment periods open and close in a matter of weeks, and regulators hear mostly from the industry. Join over 100,000 individual investors and we'll tell you when it's time to speak up, what's at stake, and how to do it in a couple of minutes.

Read our latest comment letters →

Join the mailing list

A few emails a year, only when there's something to do.

Your email is never shared or sold.