February 2006 Market Clearing in the Energy Industry 76 © Copyright 2006, CCRO. All rights reserved. NCC/ North American Energy Credit and Clearing Corp (“NECC”) New York Mercantile Exchange (“NYMEX”) ICE/LCH Clearnet Virtual Markets Assurance Corporation (“VMAC”) Natural Gas Exchange anonymously and as a direct counterparty to NECC or to use ICEBlock to clear a previously matched trade (next day only during Phase I) through NECC. RTO markets would be cleared as a service to the RTO. product, that is traded off-exchange but clears through the NYMEX Clearing House. In this scenario the trading platform will be that which is administered by the RTO. For other electricity or natural gas products, NYMEX will provide clearing services for those futures contracts that are traded on the NYMEX floor, on NYMEX Access or on NYMEX Clearport Trading. Clearing services will also be provided for those OTC-executed contracts that are traded off-exchange, but cleared through NYMEX. transact either bilateral or cleared trades on the ICE system. The ICE system can be accessed in a variety of ways from the public internet to direct API connection s. All bids, offers, and trades are visible to ICE participants in a fully transparent manner. In addition trades can be executed away from the ICE System and then booked into LCH Clearnet for clearing. Such trades are known as “Block Trades”. matching the hedged trade is immaterial. Thus trades can be matched directly, through voice brokers or on electronic platforms. voice broker facilitation service, and a market agency service, all while maintaining anonymity Proven Ability The NECC management team as the architects of the NCC clearing solution has unique experience in energy and financial markets NYMEX Holdings, Inc. the successor to the New York Mercantile Exchange was established in 1872. Significant events, which NYMEX has ICE is the world’s leading electronic OTC and futures system and more VMAC is managed by a staff of seven drawn from the banking and technical fields. The credit evaluation and NGX has been operating since 1993. Power financials were launched April 15, 2003. In 2004, the Toronto Stock