Cboe Clear Europe adds US equities to its securities lending CCP

Cboe Clear Europe, the Amsterdam-based clearing house of Cboe Global Markets, said on 7 October it would extend its securities financing transactions (SFT) clearing service to US equities from mid-October. Initial coverage is more than 3,500 instruments: stocks in the Russell 3000 index and the top 500 US-listed ETFs.

Cboe said it plans to expand over time to its full US equities trading universe of around 12,000 symbols. It describes the result as “a first-of-its-kind securities lending CCP service” across European and US equities, ETFs and fixed income.

How it works

US securities will settle at the Depository Trust Company (DTC), “in line with U.S. local best practices”, with BNY acting as settlement agent. As with the service’s existing coverage of US corporate bonds and Treasuries, clearing of loans of US equities will initially be open only to non-US lenders and borrowers.

The service covers trade matching, central clearing and post-trade lifecycle management. Under its “special clearing member” model, beneficial-owner lenders such as pension funds and UCITS funds can take part without posting margin or contributing to the default fund. Cboe says this is how the CCP brings “all major sources of lending liquidity” into the service.

Growth so far

Cboe says the service has grown quickly:

• 2025: launched for loans of European equities and ETFs.
• August 2026: extended to fixed income, including European and US government and corporate bonds.
• September 2026: reached a record €14bn in outstanding loan value.

Its participants include “many of the largest firms in the securities lending market”, covering both UCITS and non-UCITS beneficial owners.

“The service’s strong adoption since launch reflects the industry’s growing recognition of the benefits of central clearing and our unique model,” said Vikesh Patel, Cboe’s global head of clearing and president of Cboe Clear Europe. Jan Treuren, head of product, said the US extension was designed “around existing workflows, settlement practices and market conventions”.

Why it matters

Securities lending is still mostly a bilateral market, and banks’ balance sheet costs for those trades are high. A CCP that covers both sides of the Atlantic lets an agent lender or prime broker put loans of European stocks, US stocks and government bonds through one cleared relationship, with the netting and capital treatment that come with it.

For agent lenders, the practical questions are:

• Workflow: how cleared US equity loans fit alongside existing bilateral programmes, and the recall and corporate-action processes that come with them.
• Timing: how DTC settlement through BNY lines up with US T+1 timings for borrowers covering short sales.

The non-US-only restriction keeps US counterparties out for now. It is worth watching whether Cboe seeks to open the service to them, which would bring it into more direct competition with domestic US lending infrastructure.

Sources

• Cboe Global Markets, “Cboe Clear Europe Expands Securities Financing Transactions Clearing Service to U.S. Equities”, 7 October 2026 — https://ir.cboe.com/news/news-details/2026/Cboe-Clear-Europe-Expands-Securities-Financing-Transactions-Clearing-Service-to-U—Equities/default.aspx