The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) and BATS Exchange, Inc (BATS) announced today that the BATS Exchange has become an OCC participant exchange. This follows Jan. 26 approval of BATS’ options trading rules by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The BATS Options exchange begins operations of its options trading facility today.
OCC, which operates under the jurisdiction of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, clears and guarantees the trades executed on all U.S. options exchanges. As a result of BATS Exchange’s affiliation with OCC, the standardized options contracts traded on BATS can be offset against the same options contracts traded on the other U.S. options markets, resulting in significant efficiencies for participating member firms.
“We thank the OCC team for working with us to meet our aggressive timeline and appreciate their significant contributions to support us in that effort,” said Jeromee Johnson, BATS vice president, market development, who has spearheaded the BATS Options project. “We are very excited to launch BATS Options today as we strive to Make Markets Better with a pure price-time priority options market that features superior technology and simple, transparent maker-taker pricing.”
Wayne P. Luthringshausen, OCC Chairman and CEO, said, "In the midst of the record growth experienced in the U.S. options industry, OCC is pleased to welcome BATS. As a participant exchange, BATS will be afforded the full range of premier clearing and risk management services available to all of our other exchanges."