On August 23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed amendments to Rule 50.5 in order to exempt certain bank holding companies, savings and loan holding companies, and community development financial institutions from the clearing requirement for certain swaps. The proposed amendments would codify no-action relief that the Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) had granted these institutions in 2016. Consistent with the earlier no-action letters, amended Rule 50.5 would exempt from the clearing requirement a swap entered into to hedge or mitigate commercial risk, if one of the counterparties to the swap is either (1) a bank holding company or savings and loan holding company, each having no more than $10 billion in consolidated assets, or (2) a community development financial institution transacting in certain types and quantities of swaps.
Comments with respect to the proposed rules are due 60 days after the proposed rules are published in the Federal Register. The proposed rules are available here.