Investments

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2019

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures [Abstract]

Investments

Investments

Our equity investments, including our investments in Euroclear plc, or Euroclear, and Coinbase Global, Inc., among others, are subject to valuation under ASU 2016-01, Financial Instruments- Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities. See Note 14 for a discussion of our determination of fair value of our financial instruments.

In addition, we own a 40% interest in the Options Clearing Corporation, or OCC, through a direct investment by the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, that we treat as an equity method investment. OCC serves as a clearing house for securities options, security futures, commodity futures and options on futures traded on various independent exchanges. OCC clears securities options traded on NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex Options, along with other non-affiliated exchanges, and is regulated by the SEC as a registered clearing agency and by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, as a derivatives clearing organization. Under equity method accounting, each reporting period we adjust the carrying value of our OCC investment on our balance sheet by recognizing our pro-rata 40% share of the earnings or losses of OCC, with a corresponding adjustment in our statement of income to other income, after eliminating any intra-entity income or expenses. In addition, if and when OCC issues cash dividends to us, we deduct the amount of these dividends from the carrying amount of our investment.

OCC adopted a new capital plan during the first quarter of 2015, which raised $150 million in equity capital from OCC's shareholders, including $60 million contributed by us. Pursuant to the terms of the capital plan, in exchange for the contributions of equity capital from its shareholders, OCC was required, subject to determination by its board of directors and compliance with legal requirements, to pay an annual dividend to its shareholders on a pro rata basis. The dividend was intended to be equal to the amount (i) of after-tax income of OCC, in excess of the amount required to maintain its target capital requirement and satisfy other capital requirements, and (ii) remaining after refunds to its clearing members equal to 50% of distributable earnings before tax. Related to that capital plan, from 2015-2017 we received a total of $31 million in dividends from OCC.

Subsequent to our $60 million investment, certain industry participants appealed the SEC's approval of the OCC capital plan in the U.S. Court of Appeals, and in August 2017, the Court of Appeals remanded the capital plan to the SEC. On February 13, 2019, the SEC disapproved the OCC capital plan established in 2015. Consistent with the SEC's disapproval of the OCC capital plan, the OCC returned $44 million of our original $60 million contribution during the six months ended June 30, 2019 as a result of the disapproval. The remaining $16 million is expected to be returned at a future date, when returning the funds will allow the OCC to maintain target capital requirements. 

Following the SEC disapproval, the OCC also announced they will not be providing a refund to clearing members or declaring a dividend to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2018, which resulted in higher reported OCC 2018 net income than we had estimated. Therefore, during the six months ended June 30, 2019, we adjusted equity earnings in OCC by recording an additional $19 million earnings in other income to reflect our share of OCC's 2018 net income. In addition, we recognized $17 million and $9 million during the six months and three months ended June 30, 2019, respectively, of equity earnings as our share of OCC's estimated 2019 profits, which is also included in other income.