Feb. 7, 2024
I’m concerned about the lack of transparency in our financial system as evidenced by this rule proposal, amongst others. The details of this proposal along with supporting information are significantly redacted which prevents public review making it impossible for the public to meaningfully review and comment on this proposal, and this proposal should be rejected on that basis alone. These rules create an unfair marketplace for market participants, especially retail investors, who are forced to face the consequences of long-tail risks while the OCC repeatedly waives margin calls for Clearing Members by repeatedly reducing their margin requirements. For this reason, this rule proposal should be rejected and Clearing Members should be subject to strictly defined margin requirements as other investors are. Per the OCC, this rule proposal and these special margin reduction procedures exist because a single Clearing Member defaulting could result in a cascade of Clearing Member defaults potentially exposing the OCC to financial risk. Thus, Clearing Members who fail to properly manage their portfolio risk against long tail events become de facto Too Big To Fail. For this reason, this rule proposal should be rejected and Clearing Members should face the consequences of failing to properly manage their portfolio risk, including against long tail events. Clearing Member failure is a natural disincentive against excessive leverage and insufficient capitalization as others in the market will not cover their loss.