DTCC was recently awarded the 2025 Global Markets Choice Awards for Best in Clearing from Markets Media, highlighting the firm’s importance and contributions to fixed income and equities clearing and settlement.
“Over the past 12 months, DTCC led the industry through some of the most significant changes to market structure in history,” said Brian Steele, DTCC Managing Director, President, Clearing & Securities Services. “We have helped to drive billions of dollars in margin savings for the industry this year by developing innovative new products, services and capabilities to support regulatory mandates and market structure changes such as T+1 settlement and expanded U.S. Treasury clearing. We are honored to be recognized as the industry leader for enhancing the resiliency and efficiency of the markets.”
Highlights from Equities Clearing & Settlement
DTCC’s equities subsidiary, National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), which clears and settles virtually all broker-to-broker equity, corporate and municipal bond and UIT transactions in U.S. markets, has taken a leading role across several significant industry initiatives in the past year.
- Led the industry through the May 2024 U.S. move to T+1, ensuring a smooth transition for clients to an accelerated settlement cycle. T+1 has led to greater operational efficiency, increased post-trade automation, reduced manual processing, and significant risk mitigation, which has translated to significant cost savings related to reduced operational burden and potential losses from failed trades or other risks.
- NSCC recently announced it will increase clearing hours to support extended trading with implementation targeted for June 2026, subject to regulatory review and approval of any necessary rule changes. Extending clearing hours to 24x5, from Sunday 8PM ET to Friday 8PM ET, will deliver increased client value by maximizing liquidity and reducing counterparty risk as NSCC will be able to apply its central counterparty guarantee to overnight activity across different time zones for global participants.
- NSCC’s risk management and scalability capabilities have been instrumental in safeguarding firms, underlying investors and financial markets, and this is particularly apparent during periods of market volatility and stress. On April 9, NSCC achieved a new peak value of $5.55 trillion, a 6.4% increase from the previous peak of $5.22 trillion on December 20, 2024. Additionally, NSCC reached a new peak volume of 545 million transactions on April 7, a 33% increase from the previous peak of 409 million transactions during the “meme stock” event on January 27, 2021.
Highlights from Fixed Income Clearing & Settlement
DTCC’s Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) has served the U.S. Treasury market since voluntary central clearing first started almost 40 years ago. FICC’s central clearing services have delivered significant value by maximizing liquidity and efficiency while maintaining robust risk management.
- In March 2025, FICC announced it was fully compliant with all SEC requirements around the U.S. Treasury clearing mandate, including final rules, enhanced access models, and the separation of house and customer activity. FICC is committed to bringing all client segments voluntarily into central clearing ahead of the mandate and has developed access models to support clients of all sizes and needs, including the Sponsored Service and the new Agent Clearing Service (ACS). FICC estimates it is already clearing nearly half of all outstanding U.S. Treasury repos covered by the SEC’s clearing requirement through the Sponsored access model.
- The volume of transactions cleared daily by FICC has grown exponentially since the SEC mandate was announced, from a peak of $4.5 trillion in 2022 to an all-time high of $11.4 trillion in April 2025. Activity through ACS, which includes significant “done away” cash transactions, also peaked at $350+ billion on April 9. FICC currently processes an average of over $10 trillion every day in U.S. Treasury activity.
- Balance sheet netting, through FICC’s efficient and systematic novation of financing transactions, has helped clients optimize capital by freeing up billions of dollars that they can use for other investment purposes. At the end of 2024, balance sheet savings across the industry, through use of the Sponsored Service, topped $900B.
“FICC is focused on providing the highest level of service to our clients, and on ensuring the reliability and the resiliency of our offerings,” said Steele. “With deadlines for expanded clearing fast approaching – December 31, 2026, for cash transactions and on June 30, 2027, for repo transactions – we are fully committed to a successful implementation. Like our efforts with T+1, we continue to work closely with the industry to educate clients on the impacts and preparations needed to ensure a smooth transition.”
Markets Media Group’s inaugural Global Markets Choice Awards was held Thursday, June 5, at Central Park Boathouse in New York City.