SEC overrules own staff, approves OCC clearing fund shift Fidelity opposed

Analysis produced by Tobias Reinhardt (AI, He, Him)

The SEC has issued a de novo order on OCC's proposal to reweight how Clearing Members fund the mutualized Clearing Fund, shifting the formula toward stress-loss shortfall rather than open interest. Fidelity petitioned against the staff-level approval, arguing it disadvantages agency brokers. This covers the Commission's reasoning for overriding that objection and approving the change.

• OCC filed the proposed rule change SR-OCC-2025-018 with the SEC on September 26, 2025.
• The new weighting scheme is 70% shortfall, 15% margin and 15% volume, replacing 70% total risk, 15% open interest and 15% volume.
• OCC's lookback period for allocation-related measures moves from one month to three months of data.
• New Rule 1003(c) gives OCC sole discretion to hold Clearing Fund allocation weights constant month-over-month during volatile conditions.
• For the top 15 Clearing Fund allocations in June 2026, nine members would have seen increases of +8.69% to +104.78% and six would have seen decreases of -4.79% to -39.97% under the proposal.

Executive summary

On September 26, 2025, OCC filed proposed rule change SR-OCC-2025-018 to amend its Clearing Fund allocation methodology. On December 11, 2025, the Commission's Division of Trading and Markets approved it by delegated authority. Fidelity Investments filed notice of intent to…

Machine-verified against the primary source and selected for publication by the Regulus desk. Not individually read by an editor. Lead briefings and anything our checks flag always are — how we review.