Chicago-based clearing house OCC cleared close to 1.4 million new stock loan transactions last year, up 16% from 2014’s figure.

The group, which recently had a controversial capital plan approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is the only central counterparty in the US that clears stock loan trades.

In its annual report published on Wednesday, OCC president Michael McClain said transaction volumes have grown “steadily” and notional values have “increased sharply” over the last two years.

“We are seeing an increase in requests from agent lenders on behalf of their beneficial owners for information on the benefits of central clearing of stock loan transactions,” he added.

“Market participants are looking at how a central counterparty solution can enhance the efficiency of securities lending activity for lenders as well as the broker-dealer borrowing community.”

Earlier this year, OCC’s business development chief Scot Warren said that expanding the group's centrally cleared model for securities lending was a top priority.

Speaking at the IMN’s Beneficial Owner conference in Arizona, Warren, who oversees work on the OCC's new products, said plans to enhance the firm’s CCP route for sec lending transactions is a number one objective in 2016.

OCC already operates a successful service for securities lending deals, but it caters to direct bank and broker-dealer participants — not the agency lending model.

Eurex Clearing, owned by Deutsche Borse, is building its own centrally cleared service for stock loan trades in the US.

Effective use of capital, credit intermediation, risk mitigation, increased utilisation and operational efficiency have all been cited as potential advantages for beneficial owners  

OCC’s shareholders include CBOE, International Securities Exchange and Nasdaq.

Each stakeholder backed the business in a capital plan designed to boost the group’s balance sheet recently.

It involves OCC setting a target capital amount each year, with the exchange owners helping it meet an initial amount and injecting capital when needed.

The move was challenged by Bats Global Markets on the basis that the capital would give OCC unfair advantage, but US judges rejected the motion.