Hair-Raising Critique Aimed at Options Clearing by SEC

For the second time this year, U.S. regulators have cited one of the biggest American options institutions for failing to police itself.

The Securities and Exchange Commission told Chicago-based Options Clearing Corp. that it has “serious concern about systemic weaknesses in OCC’s risk management and operations,” according to a letter obtained by Bloomberg News. The largest equity-derivatives clearinghouse, which guarantees all trades placed on American stock options exchanges and was deemed to be a systemically important financial market utility by the U.S., is controlled by executives from bourses and trading firms.