[authors: Kevin M. Foley, Adam J. Spector]
The Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has adopted a no-action position authorizing registered futures commission merchants (FCMs) to enter into repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements (each, a Repo) that are cleared by a securities clearing agency. Although a securities clearing agency is not a permitted counterparty under CFTC Regulation 1.25(d)(2), DCR determined that FCMs engaging in repurchase transactions, whereby the ultimate counterparty is a securities clearing agency, poses no additional credit risk to customer funds, and in fact may reduce the credit risk in the transaction.
The CFTC’s no-action letter is available here.
