OCC Announces 2% Decrease In Cleared Contract Volume In February While Stock Loan Activity Rose 7%

OCC announced today that total cleared contract volume in February reached 351,702,360 contracts, representing a 2 percent decrease from the February 2011 volume of 357,275,834 contracts. OCC’s year-to-date total contract volume is down 7 percent from 2011 with 688,925,298 contracts.

Options: Exchange-listed options trading volume reached 349,463,168 contracts in February, a 1 percent decrease from February 2011. Equity options volume fell 3 percent from the previous February with 323,293,320 contracts. Index options trading rose 18 percent from February 2011 with 26,169,848 contacts. Average daily options volume for the month of February was 17,473,158 contracts.

Futures: OCC cleared 2,239,192 futures contracts in February, a 27 percent decrease from February 2011. Equity futures volume was up 33 percent from February 2011 with 237,197 contracts. Index and other futures volume came in at 2,001,960 contracts, a 31 percent decrease from February 2011. OCC cleared an average of 111,960 futures contracts per day during the month of February.

Securities Lending: OCC's stock loan program, including OTC and AQS, saw a 7 percent increase in new loan activity over February 2011 with 68,820 new loan transactions in February. Year-to-date securities lending activity is down 3 percent from 2011 with 132,046 new loan transactions in 2012. OCC's stock loan program had an average daily notional value of $21,899,818,617.