SEC grants broker-dealers exemptive relief for margin held at Cboe Clear U.S.

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

The SEC has issued an exemptive order under Exchange Act section 36(a)(1) extending Item 13 reserve-computation treatment to margin held at Cboe Clear U.S. (CCUS), a newly registered options clearing agency. Compliance teams at broker-dealers that clear binary options through CCUS need to understand the six conditions attached to this relief and the registration prerequisites that trigger it.

• CCUS filed its application for exemptive relief on September 18, 2026, and the Commission published notice on September 29, 2026.
• The Commission received one comment letter, dated October 13, 2026, which it considered but declined to adopt the suggested additional conditions.
• The order exempts Clearing Members from the Item 13 and Note F limitation in Rule 15c3-3a that previously confined the debit to margin held at OCC.
• Six conditions apply, including that CCUS remain registered under section 17A(b), that relief apply solely to customer binary options margin, and that CCUS amend its rules to reflect the conditions.
• CCUS is registered with the Commission for a temporary period of 18 months to provide central counterparty services for cash-settled binary security options.

Executive summary

The SEC issued Release No. 34-106726 on October 23, 2026, granting conditional exemptive relief under section 36(a)(1) of the Exchange Act to broker-dealers that are clearing members of Cboe Clear U.S., LLC (CCUS). CCUS, temporarily registered as a clearing agency…

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.