DTCC: PROVIDING A PUBLIC SERVICE
DTCC clears and settles millions of securities transactions, valued in the billions, every day. In “DTCC For the Public Good,” the purpose that U.S. capital markets serve, market challenges that created the need for centralized clearing and the rise of DTCC are outlined. The educational paper reviews key advances in clearance and settlement and how these services have benefitted the markets. It also illustrates how DTCC provides stability in times of crisis, from the terrorist attacks of 9/11, to the 2008 financial crisis and the global COVID-19 pandemic.
ACCELERATED SECURITIES SETTLEMENT
DTCC has long worked with the industry to identify ways to enhance efficiency and reduce costs in post-trade processing. Following a multi-year, industry-wide effort, securities settlement was shortened in 2017 from T+3 to T+2 (or two business days after a trade is executed). Shortening the settlement cycle further would reduce the risks that drive margin requirements and reduce costs to clearing members.
In February 2023, the U.S. SEC announced May 28, 2024 as the implementation date for the move to T+1 settlement for transactions in US cash equities, corporate debt and unit investment trusts. Access accelerated settlement resources.
INNOVATION
DTCC actively explores how transformative technologies like distributed ledgers, cloud computing and artificial intelligence can further enhance the post-trade process by mitigating risk, creating efficiencies and reducing costs.
DTCC’s strategy and business development team spearheads its global initiatives around technology research, technical development and thought leadership. The team is responsible for ensuring effective collaboration with market participants and key stakeholders around the world to advance technologies, while promoting standardization and best practice. Access innovation resources.
OPERATONAL RESILENCE AND CYBER SECURITY
DTCC has a long history of engaging with policymakers globally on cyber security readiness and resiliency. Operational resilience and ongoing efforts to combat cyber threats are priorities for DTCC, its clients and industry participants. This work is vital to the efforts of financial institutions and market utilities to support clients and global financial markets in the face of growing cyber threats, and natural or operational disruptions. As part of these efforts, DTCC works with industry members and government agencies to raise awareness of and mitigate the impact of cyber-threats, and has stressed the importance of a robust threat information-sharing environment, particularly across critical infrastructures. DTCC serves on the board for the Analysis and Resilience Center (“ARC”) in addition to the board for Sheltered Harbor (“SH”). Formerly known as the Financial Systemic Analysis and Resilience Center (“FSARC”), the ARC provides a forum for US financial services critical infrastructure operators to identify systemic risks and develop solutions to mitigate or resolve the potential impacts of these risks. Access cyber security resources.
GLOBAL DATA HARMONIZATION
As the global derivatives markets are highly interconnected, derivatives data must be consistent across all jurisdictions. Significant progress has been made on global data standardization for the purposes of monitoring OTC derivatives systemic risk and identifying market abuse. Coordination is critical to achieve the G20 goal of creating transparency in the global OTC derivatives market to mitigate systemic risk, and policymakers must implement recommended reforms to enable the aggregation and analysis of data reported to trade repositories across multiple jurisdictions. Access data harmonization resources.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
In the global marketplace, DTCC believes that firms must embrace diversity and inclusion, and reflect the communities and regions they serve to be best positioned for future success. Companies must actively drive the change they want to see and make it happen. DTCC is deeply committed to advocating for, and advancing, policies and practices that promote diversity and inclusion, and to creating workplaces where the status quo can be challenged, unique perspectives are welcome and unconscious bias is addressed. Access diversity and inclusion resources.
SYSTEMIC RISK
DTCC is focused on mitigating risk and enhancing the resiliency of the global financial marketplace. Risk management has undergone a dramatic transformation in the financial industry in recent years, with a broader, more sophisticated, and more diverse role. Responsibilities now include traditional financial risk categories, as well as operational, systemic, technology, vendor and physical risks, and business continuity management.
DTCC takes a holistic view of risk and has adopted a consistent, enterprise-wide approach for measuring and managing risk. To support this work, DTCC established a Systemic Risk Office (SRO) in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to further expand DTCC’s risk management capabilities. The SRO is dedicated to identifying, monitoring and containing potential systemic threats. Access SRO resources.
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