On July 10, 2017, the Division of Market Oversight (DMO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) announced the launch of a comprehensive review of the swap data reporting regulations1 adopted by the...more
On May 3, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) voted to seek public input on simplifying and modernizing the agency’s rules (Project KISS, 82 Fed. Reg. 21494 (May 9, 2017)). CFTC Acting Chairman J....more
On February 23, 2017, U.S. federal banking regulators (Prudential Regulators), European regulators and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) issued statements clarifying their expectations on...more
2/27/2017
/ CFTC ,
Deadlines ,
EU ,
European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) ,
Federal Bank Regulatory Agencies ,
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ,
IOSCO ,
Margin Requirements ,
No-Action Relief ,
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swaps ,
Time Extensions ,
UK ,
Uncleared Swaps ,
Variation Margin Requirements (VM)
Swaps transactions, virtually unregulated before the 2008 financial crisis, are regulated in the U.S. under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. Title VII empowers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for most swaps,...more
Less than two weeks into the new congressional session, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 239 to 182 the Commodity End-User Relief Act1 (the Bill or House Bill), marking the first step by the new...more
1/20/2017
/ Algorithmic Trading ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity End-User Relief Act ,
Commodity Futures Contracts ,
Cross-Border Transactions ,
Derivatives ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Mandatory Clearing Requirements ,
Margin Requirements ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Swaps
On March 1, 2017, new rules adopted by U.S. Prudential Regulators and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will require registered swap dealers to post and collect daily variation margin for over-the-counter,...more
The CFTC’s newly proposed rules on cross-border transactions address which swap activities affect swap-dealer thresholds and trigger transaction-level swap requirements. These are the latest in a series of CFTC rulemakings,...more
Recently introduced legislation suggests that Republicans and Democrats in post-election Congress will be looking in very different directions on how to amend the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act...more
7/29/2016
/ Basel III ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Cross-Border ,
Derivatives ,
Dodd-Frank ,
FDIC ,
Financial Institutions ,
FSOC ,
FX Forwards ,
Political Parties ,
Presidential Elections ,
Proposed Amendments ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Swaps
On June 9, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed to require additional interest rate swaps to be centrally cleared. Since December 2012, the CFTC has required four classes of interest rate swaps...more
On May 24, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted final rules (cross-border margin rules) that specify how its recently issued uncleared margin rules apply to cross-border transactions. Chairman Timothy...more
On April 4, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed guidance that would exclude certain capacity contracts in electric power markets (capacity contracts) and natural gas peaking supply contracts from...more
Following the 2008 financial crisis, regulators across the globe have pondered how to ameliorate systemic risk in derivatives markets. At the 2009 G-20 summit, international regulators committed to address this risk through...more
Federal banking regulators (Prudential Regulators) have finalized much-anticipated rules (Final Rules) relating to initial and variation margin requirements for certain swaps and security-based swaps that are not centrally...more
11/3/2015
/ Affiliates ,
CFTC ,
Commercial End-User Exception ,
Compliance Dates ,
Covered Swap Entities (CSE) ,
Cross-Border ,
Customer Collateral Requirements ,
Derivatives ,
Final Rules ,
Investment Management ,
Margin Requirements ,
Non-Cleared Swaps ,
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swaps
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently took a series of actions confirming views expressed late last year by CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad that "[d]erivatives contracts based on a virtual currency represent...more
10/2/2015
/ Bitcoin ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Derivatives ,
Jurisdiction ,
Popular ,
SEFs ,
Swap Trading ,
Swaps ,
Virtual Currency
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) unanimously approved a final rule (“Final Rule”) that formally extends the existing registered futures association (“RFA”) membership requirement to registered introducing...more
9/14/2015
/ Brokers ,
CFTC ,
Commodity Pool ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
CPOs ,
Derivatives ,
Final Rules ,
Investment Adviser ,
Major Swap Participants ,
National Futures Association ,
NFA ,
Registered Futures Association Membership ,
Registration Requirement ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps
On August 5, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final registration rules for security-based (SB) swap dealers and major SB swap participants (collectively SBS Entities). Concurrently, the SEC also...more
8/13/2015
/ CFTC ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Major Swap Participants ,
Registration Requirement ,
SBS Entities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps ,
Threshold Requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently proposed rules1 to address the cross-border application of margin requirements for uncleared swaps for swap dealers and major swap participants not subject to...more
On May 12, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued revised interpretive guidance for forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality (EVO). In 2012, the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission...more
Trade options are physically settled over-the-counter options on most deliverable commodities (e.g., agricultural, energy, or metals) where the buyer is a producer, processor, commercial user or merchant of the commodity...more
On April 29, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules1 that would address how registration, SEC Regulation SBSR and other SEC requirements for security-based swap transactions would apply to a...more
Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued no-action relief that provides chief compliance officers (CCOs) of registered swap dealers (SDs),...more
On December 16, 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law a bill that lessens the impact of Section 716 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, more commonly known as the “Swaps Push-Out...more
On May 2, 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)published in the Federal Register proposed regulations1 that would implement the recordkeeping, reporting and notification requirements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street...more
On May 22, 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) and its staff took three actions.
First, the Commission proposed to amend its existing definition of “swap dealer” in order to allow...more
On May 15, 2014, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and the Futures Industry Association (FIA) Europe published the ISDA/FIA Europe Cleared Derivatives Execution Agreement (ISDA/FIA Europe CDEA). ...more