SEC Charges Fixed Income Clearing Corp. With Having Inadequate Risk Management Policies

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC), a clearing agency, has agreed to pay an $8 million penalty to settle SEC charges that it failed to have adequate risk management policies within its Government Securities Division. According to the SEC’s order, FICC acts as the sole registered clearing agency for transactions in U.S. government securities. FICC substitutes itself for both sides of every transaction that it clears, guaranteeing those transactions and making itself the buyer for every seller and the seller for every buyer. A failure by FICC to manage risk could result in significant costs not only to FICC and its participants, but also to other market participants or the broader U.S.