Executive Summary

With the July 16 general effective date for derivatives provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) fast approaching and the vast majority of required swap rulemakings still unfinished, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission have each taken action to provide extensive (albeit temporary) exemptive relief for derivatives market participants that is intended to enable them to preserve the status quo for their derivatives business until the full “mosaic” of the new regulatory regime is in place. The CFTC action is a proposed exemptive order that was published on June 17, with a July 1 deadline for public comments, to ensure that it is in final form before July 16. The primary SEC action takes the form of a final exemptive order dealing with effective date issues; the SEC has additionally proposed to exempt cleared security-based swap agreements from certain of the registration requirements under the federal securities laws.