Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on National Securities Clearing Corp. (NSCC) reflect the firm's near monopoly as a clearinghouse serving the principal securities markets in the U.S. NSCC's board of directors is populated by all major market participants, each of whom depends upon NSCC to clear financial securities market trades. In the absence of NSCC, U.S. markets would lose an essential part of their infrastructure. For this reason, we believe NSCC plays a crucial role and would receive support from the broader securities markets community, if necessary, to keep markets open. This implied support also supports our ratings. Our ratings are also based on NSCC's robust risk-management controls and procedures and the existence of safeguards that protect the clearing
