The transatlantic trading platform cousins have officially been recognised as twins, on 5 November the European Commission announced its long-promised equivalence decision in respect of U.S. swap execution facilities. The CFTC plans to reciprocate by exempting MTFs and OTFs from U.S. registration requirements. The mutual recognition comes just in time before the 3 January 2018 […]

On 13 October 2017, the CTC and the EU announced substituted compliance determinations in respect of margin requirements for OTC derivatives. The determinations accept that the CFTC’s Final Margin Rule and EMIR’s risk mitigation and margin requirements are sufficiently comparable on a substantive outcomes basis. For those interested in reading the full text, we recommend […]

The CFTC yesterday proposed a large expansion to the classes covered by its clearing determination Regulation 50.4(a). The proposal’s intention is to make the CFTC clearing obligation consistent with a wide range of international jurisdictions. To this end, it adds the currencies of Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland to […]

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight yesterday issued no-action letter 16-25, extending no-action relief for SEF confirmation and recordkeeping requirements under CFTC Regulations 37.6(b), 37.1000, 37.1001, 45.2 and 45.3(a). Connoisseurs of CFTC no-action will immediately recognise the notorious regulations that require SEFs to obtain pre-trade physical copies of the master agreements to which their trade […]

Commissioners yesterday voted 2-to-1 to pass margin rules for uncleared swaps. The rules are broadly in line with those passed by the Prudential Regulators on 30 October 2015. Initial margin (IM) will be exchanged between covered swap entities (CSEs) and SDs, MSPs and financial end-users, subject to the $8bn gross notional exposure. IM may be […]

CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad delivered the keynote speech to yesterday’s meeting of the World Federation of Exchanges. In a slight departure from his consistent themes of the superlative work of the Agency he chairs, its budget woes and the social utility of derivatives markets, Chairman Massad highlighted different aspects of the relationship between regulation and […]

The CFTC has issued a fourth no-action letter, extending relief for certain package swaps. Regulations 37.9 and 37.3(a)(2) will not be enforced until expiry of the relief on 15 November 2016 for the following package combinations: MAT Swap/New Issuance Bond- an MAT swap and a primary market bond MAT Swap/Futures- may include Treasury/Eurodollar futures MAT […]

The CFTC has issued additional time-limited no-action relief from electronic reporting requirements in the ownership and control final rule (OCR Rule). The OCR Rule mandates the electronic submission of trader identification/market participant data, requiring both new and updated forms. No-action Letter 15-51 is the third postponement of enforcement for the OCR Rule and extends relief […]

The CFTC seeks comment on a proposed rule to modify which Part 45 data fields are regarded  as “material” under Regulation 23.502. Readers will doubtless recall CFTC No-Action Letter  13-31, granting relief as to the “material terms” of a swap for the purposes of portfolio  reconciliation; the proposal is to amend then codify and replace […]