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Katten hosts a weekly, 15-minute fireside chat podcast series on notable UK and European developments from the prior week’s Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest. This week, Carolyn Jackson covers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s approval of the final cross-border swaps rule, including a discussion of the CFTC’s revised rules applicable to non-US swap dealers…

By a vote of 3-2, on July 23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted its Final Cross-Border Swaps Rulemaking (Final Cross-Border Rule), which codifies several parts of the CFTC’s existing interpretive guidance and policy statement on the subject. Among other things, the Final Cross-Border Rule establishes key definitions, some of which are revised definitions of existing terms used in the interpretive guidance (e.g., the definition of “U.S. Person”) and others which are new. The rule also addresses which cross-border swaps must be considered for the purposes of the swap dealer registration threshold.…
Continue Reading CFTC Adopts Final Cross-Border Swap Rulemaking; Staff Issues No-Action Relief for ANE Transactions

On July 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted rules (Final Rules) that set minimum financial capital requirements for swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs) that are not subject to prudential regulation (each, a “Covered Swap Entity” or CSE). The capital requirements were originally proposed in 2016, as explained in more detail here.

The core financial require…
Continue Reading CFTC Adopts Final Capital Requirements for Swap Dealers

On July 23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission held an open meeting at which it approved an Amendment Order that (1) exempted 16 additional multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and organized trading facilities (OTFs) authorized within the European Union (EU) from the requirement to register as swap execution facilities (SEFs); and (2) clarified the application of the existing order to UK based MTFs and OTFs during the UK’s Brexit transition period.…
Continue Reading CFTC Approves Exempt SEF Amendment Order for Certain EU MTFs and OTFs

On July 8, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued Notice I-20-27 to remind member firms that the compliance date for NFA’s Swaps Proficiency Requirements (Requirements) is January 31, 2021 (Compliance Date). NFA Members with associated persons (AP) required to satisfy the Requirements must ensure that covered individuals are in compliance by the Compliance Date. Individuals who do not satisfy the Requirements by the Compliance Date will be unable to engage in swaps activities until they have done so.…
Continue Reading NFA Issues Notice to Members Regarding Compliance Date for Swaps Proficiency Requirement

On May 28, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed amendments to NFA Interpretive Notice 9045 (Interpretive Notice) regarding the anti-money laundering (AML) Programs that introducing brokers (IBs) (and futures commission merchants) are required to implement. …
Continue Reading NFA Proposes Amendments to Interpretive Notice Regarding AML Programs

On May 22, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an open invitation for member firms and other interested parties to provide views and information about the security-based swap (SBS) market, with particular focus on broker-dealer SBS activities and the application of FINRA rules to those activities. The invitation, which is not a mandatory information request, includes the following questions:…
Continue Reading FINRA Requests Comments on Security-Based Swaps

On May 19, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed technical amendment to several of NFA’s Rules and Interpretive Notices. In addition to correcting numerous cross-references and eliminating obsolete provisions, the proposed technical amendments add a definition of Swap Execution Facility (SEF) to NFA Compliance Rule 1-1 and require…