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 October 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the European Commission (EC) made three announcements that are significant for cross-border swap activity between the United States and Europe. CFTC Margin Rule Comparability Determination. The CFTC has made a determination that the margin rules for uncleared swaps that apply in the European Union are comparable to… Continue Reading
On April 18, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued No-Action Letter 17-22, which extends relief previously granted under CFTC No-Action Letter 17-05. CFTC No-Action Letter 17-05 allowed certain swap dealers to substitute compliance with the non-centrally cleared OTC derivative margin requirements applicable in the European Union (the… Continue Reading
Lacking the ability to issue formal no-action relief from strict compliance with the variation margin rules for uncleared swaps coming into effect on March 1, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) have each issued statements suggesting that they… Continue Reading
As part of a global regulatory initiative, the United States, European Union, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia have all adopted, or are in the process of adopting, rules (Margin Rules) that impose mandatory variation margin requirements on non-cleared swaps and, in some cases, non-cleared security-based swaps and FX derivatives (collectively, “Covered Trades”).… Continue Reading
On September 8, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a comparability determination permitting substituted compliance with certain Japanese margin requirements for uncleared swaps. As discussed in the Corporate and Financial Weekly Digest edition for May 27, the CFTC permits certain non-US swap dealers and major swap participants to comply with the margin rules of another… Continue Reading
