On February 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) published Staff Letter 18-03, which extends the time-limited no-action relief provided in Staff Letter 16-85 for entities submitting swaps for clearing by derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) operating under (1) exemptive orders issued by the CFTC; or (2) no-action relief granted by the… Continue Reading
On February 5, the Prudential Regulators—the five federal banking regulators for swap dealers that are banks—proposed technical amendments to their margin rules for uncleared swaps. The amendments aim to harmonize the definition of Eligible Master Netting Agreement (EMNA) in the margin rules with recent changes made to the definition of “Qualifying Master Netting Agreement” (QMNA)… Continue Reading
On January 3, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority proposed a rule change to extend the expiration date of FINRA Rule 0180 (Application of Rules to Security-Based Swaps) to February 12, 2019. FINRA Rule 0180 temporarily limits the application of certain FINRA rules with regard to security-based swaps. The rule was originally designed to avoid disruptions… Continue Reading
As contemplated by announcements last month, the European Commission (EC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) took action this week to implement mutual recognition of derivatives trading venues in advance of the January 3, 2018 compliance date for the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) requirement that the most liquid derivative instruments that… Continue Reading
On November 7, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) published Staff Letters 17-57, 17-58 and 17-59 (Staff Letters), which provided Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica, the European Stability Mechanism, and the North American Development Bank, respectively, with no-action relief from the swap clearing requirements set forth in Section 2(h)(1)… Continue Reading
On September 1, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System adopted a final rule that will affect the rights of counterparties that enter into Qualified Financial Contracts (QFC) (e.g., derivatives, stock loans and repurchase agreements) with banks that have been designated as global systemically important banking organizations (GSIBs). This rule, which was proposed… Continue Reading
On March 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight extended no-action relief relating to the recordkeeping and confirmation requirements in CFTC Regulations 37.6(b), 37.1000, 37.1001, 45.2, and 45.3(a). This relief applies only to uncleared swap transactions executed on or pursuant to the rules of a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) and is subject to… Continue Reading
On August 16, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission published in the Federal Register its final response to the order of the US District Court for the District of Columbia in SIFMA v. CFTC, which remanded eight swaps-related rulemakings for new cost-benefit analysis.… Continue Reading
The bankruptcy court overseeing the Lehman Brothers chapter 11 cases rejected efforts by Lehman Brothers Special Financing Inc. (LBSF) to recover roughly $1 billion in payments made to numerous noteholder defendants from the liquidation of collateral originally pledged to secure both obligations under notes issued by special purpose entities and credit default swap (CDS) obligations… Continue Reading
On June 14, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the approval of amendments to Part 45 of the CFTC’s regulations, which pertain to the reporting and recordkeeping obligations involved in cleared swaps transactions. The amendments seek to clarify certain aspects of the existing Part 45 rules, including the roles of registered entities and swap… Continue Reading
On January 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued CFTC letter 16-03 (“Letter”) providing a conditional, time-limited extension of the relief provided in CFTC Letter 13-41, issued on June 28, 2013, regarding the masking of certain identifying information required to be reported in connection with swaps required to be reported… Continue Reading
