Pursuant to its authority under Section 4(c)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act (the “CEA”), on June 29, 2012 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) published an Exemptive Order Regarding Compliance With Certain Swap Regulations (the “Order”). The Order provides temporary exemptive relief with respect to compliance with certain entity-level and transaction-level requirements of the CEA that would otherwise apply to registered swap dealers (“SDs”) and major swap participants (“MSPs”). By virtue of the Order, non-US SDs and non-US MSPs as well as foreign branches of US SDs and US MSPs will be eligible to comply with the requirements of their home jurisdiction (i.e., the home jurisdiction of the foreign SD/MSP or the foreign branch) in place of compliance with certain entity-level and transaction-level requirements for a limited time. The exemptive relief will be effective upon the date that the non-US SD or non US MSP or, in the case of a foreign branch, the date upon which the related US SD or US MSP applies for registration with the CFTC, and will expire upon the date that is 12 months from the publication of the Order in the Federal Register.

The Order also grants relief to US SDs and US MSP from certain entity-level and transaction-level requirements by allowing US SDs and US MSPs to delay their compliance until January 1, 2013.

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