On July 14, 2011, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) finalized its order providing temporary exemptive relief from certain provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Dodd-Frank Act) that would otherwise take effect tomorrow (July 16, 2011). A copy of the final order is available here. According to the final order’s preamble and a press release issued by the CFTC, the final order is essentially the same as the corresponding proposed order originally published by the CFTC on June 17, 2011. A copy of Sutherland's Legal Alert addressing the CFTC’s proposed order is available here.

Temporary Relief From Certain Provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act Provided by the CFTC’s Final Order

The CFTC's order provides temporary exemptions from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (the CEA) in two parts:

The first part provides temporary relief from provisions of the CEA added or amended by the Dodd-Frank Act that reference one or more terms such as “swap,” "swap dealer," "major swap participant," and "eligible contract participant" which the Dodd-Frank Act requires to be further defined. These provisions are listed in Category 2 of the Appendix to the CFTC's final order. The temporary relief under this portion of the order will expire upon the earlier of: (1) the effective date of the applicable final rule further defining the relevant term; or (2) December 31, 2011.