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Credit Risk
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2019
Credit Risk  
Credit Risk

16.          Credit Risk

The Company may be exposed to credit risk regarding its receivables, which are primarily receivables from financial institutions, including investment managers and broker-dealers. At December 31, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the Company established an allowance for doubtful accounts of $0.2 million and $1.2 million, respectively, with regard to these receivables.

In the normal course of business the Company, as agent, executes transactions with, and on behalf of, other broker-dealers. If the agency transactions do not settle because of failure to perform by either counterparty, the Company may be obligated to discharge the obligation of the non-performing party and, as a result, may incur a loss if the market value of the security is different from the contract amount of the transaction.

A substantial number of the Company's transactions are collateralized and executed with, and on behalf of, a limited number of broker-dealers. The Company's exposure to credit risk associated with the nonperformance of these clients in fulfilling their contractual obligations pursuant to securities transactions can be directly impacted by volatile trading markets which may impair the clients' ability to satisfy their obligations to the Company.

From time to time, the Company enters into agreements to repurchase to facilitate the clearance of securities.  Credit exposure related to these agreements to repurchase, including the risk related to a decline in market value of collateral (pledged or received), is managed by entering into agreements to repurchase with overnight or short-term maturity dates and only entering into repurchase transactions with netting members of the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (“FICC”). The FICC requires dealer netting members to maintain a minimum of $25 million in equity capital and $10 million in excess net capital. The FICC operates a continuous net settlement system, whereby as trades are submitted and compared the FICC becomes the counterparty. The FICC also marks to market collateral on a daily basis, requiring member firms to pay or receive margin amounts as part of their daily funds settlement.

The Company does not expect nonperformance by counterparties in the above situations. However, the Company's policy is to monitor its market exposure and counterparty risk. In addition, the Company has a policy of reviewing, as considered necessary, the credit standing of each counterparty with which it conducts business.