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The Volcker strip – making banking less regulated again

US regulators have disclosed the much awaited revision of the Volcker Rule that had been taken on by the Trump administration. Wall Street has undoubtedly received a huge win, but who is likely to bear the losses? The Volcker Rule was implemented after the financial crash to stop banks from engaging in proprietary trading (buying […]

CFTC final non-cleared margin rules

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 […]

Congress seeks to rein in CFTC

The House of Congress has passed legislation to reauthorise the CFTC for another five years; the Commodity End-User Relief Act (H.R. 2289) passed with a healthy majority 246-171. As with all things Dodd-Frank, the bill is already complex, controversial and may prove to be consequential. The bill’s policy statement is  blunt and uncompromising  in its […]

ISDA Publishes IM Segregation Notification

Following entry into force of the final CFTC rules on initial margin segregation on 6 May 2014 (see this blog post for more detail), ISDA has published a “Form of CFTC 23.704 Quarterly Notice” on its website.  The notice is intended to assist market participants in implementing the reporting requirement under regulation 23.704 relating to […]

To segregate or not- that’s now the question

Today marks the effective date for compliance with CFTC final rules on notification of IM segregation for SDs/MSPs. The Final Rules on the Protection of Collateral of Counterparties to Uncleared Swaps more or less does what it says on the tin: Client Notification: SD/MSPs will notify the client of their right to require segregation of […]

CFTC and Canadian Regulators Agree Entent Cordiale

CFTC and Canadian Regulators Agree Entent Cordiale On 27 March 204, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Alberta Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission, and the Autorite des marches financiers (the “Authorities”) announced that they had reached agreement over the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) regarding

CFTC Provides No-Action Relief for Utility Special Entities

On 21 March 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued No-Action Letter No 14-32, providing relief in relation to the swap dealer (SD) registration rules for firms entering into “utility commodity swaps” with “utility special entities”. SD registration rules require firms to register as SDs if

Better Late Than Never: CFTC Consults on Swap Data Reporting Rules

Better Late Than Never: CFTC Consults on Data Reporting Rules Long aware of the need to improve its data collection and quality standards, on 19 March 2014 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published a request for public comment on Part 45 of its Swap Data Reporting rules. Part 45 requires the real-time reporting of […]

CFTC Confirms Bloomberg SEF’s MAT Determinations

On 10 March 2014, the CFTC confirmed the validity of the ‘made available to trade’ (MAT) determinations of Bloomberg SEF LLC made in January 2014. Pursuant to the Bloomberg MAT determinations, the following contracts became subject to the requirement that they be executed on a designated contract market (DCM) or swap execution facility (SEF):

Help on the Way Over Dodd-Frank IM Segregation

More hard-lifting from ISDA as the association busies itself preparing yet more documentation to assist the industry’s efforts to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act.  This time it’s CFTC rule 23.701 which requires Swap Dealers (SDs) and Major Swap Counterparties (MSPs) to notify counterparties of their right to require the segregation of initial margin (IM) posted […]

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