To further the adopted rules’ objectives, the following are now required:

• policies and procedures for the board to solicit, consider, and document the views of participants and other relevant stakeholders
• policies and procedures for the management of risks from relationships with service providers for core services
• policies and procedures that obligate directors to report conflicts of interest
• independent directors and for the composition of a registered clearing agency’s board of directors, nominating committee, and risk management committee
• identification, mitigation, or elimination of conflicts of interest involving directors or senior managers and to document such actions
• definition of independence concerning a director serving on the board of a registered clearing agency and a requirement that a majority of the board (or 34 percent if a majority of the voting rights are directly or indirectly held by participants) be independent directors

The final rules would increase disclosure requirements for board governance. Additionally, increased transparency may result from requiring registered clearing agencies to enhance their governance disclosures. The SEC may require these disclosures to be submitted in a structured, machine-readable data language, which could increase transparency benefits from the disclosures by improving the way they are processed.

The compliance date is 12 months following publication in the Federal Register, with the exception of the independence requirements for the board and board committees, for which the compliance date is 24 months following publication in the Federal Register.

For further details, see the SEC’s Clearing Agency Governance and Conflicts of Interest final rule on sec.gov.

Source:

SEC Adopts Rules to Improve Clearing Agency Governance and Mitigate Conflicts of Interest (sec.gov)