As the countdown to the LIBOR sunset enters its final six months, the CFTC staff is trying to help the market transition. With less than six months to go before the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) expires on December...more
The official transition to a new administration and early Cabinet selections helped drive Wall Street to new highs on Tuesday, with the Dow topping 30,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 up 1.6% to another new high, too....more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission brought separate enforcement actions against the portfolio manager of a hedge fund for mismarking valuations of interest rate swaps in order...more
On February 27, 2019, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) announced that it would not appeal a November 2018 decision in U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Donald R. Wilson, et al., No. 1:13-cv-07884...more
Few price manipulation cases brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ever go to trial. The CFTC case filed against the trading firm DRW Investments LLC (and its CEO) was the exception to that rule and would...more
On November 30, 2018, nearly two years after the trial concluded, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York found in favor of Defendants Donald R. Wilson (Wilson) and his derivatives trading firm DRW...more
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission is considering a new measure to calculate the size of the interest rate swap (IRS) markets. Under the methodology proposed in a paper by CFTC Chief Economist Bruce Tuckman, the...more
With the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) announcing in July 2017, essentially, its intent to no longer persuade or compel panel banks to make LIBOR submissions by the end of 2021, the future of LIBOR, and its role in...more
The CFTC expanded the existing clearing requirement to interest rate swaps through an amendment to regulation 50.4(a), requiring that market participants submit a covered swap for clearing by a derivatives clearing...more
On June 9, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding an expansion of CFTC Regulation 50.4(a). If adopted, additional classes of interest rate swaps will become subject...more
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
Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and European regulators announced that they have reached agreement on a “common approach” regarding requirements for central counterparties (CCPs) (i.e.,...more
CFTC Brings First Insider Trading-Type Enforcement Action Based on New Anti-Manipulation Authority: Last week the Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought and settled its first enforcement action sounding in the...more
The Division of Clearing and Risk of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has further extended temporary no-action relief to Eurex Clearing AG and its clearing members that are US persons, which authorizes US clearing...more
On August 6, 2015, the European Commission (EC) adopted new rules that will require the clearing of certain over-the-counter (OTC) interest rate swaps pursuant to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) (the EU...more
On August 18, the consultation period closed for responding to the draft regulatory technical standards (RTS) published by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) for the mandatory clearing of certain interest...more
As of February 15, 2014, certain types of fixed-for-floating interest rate swaps must be executed on a swap execution facility (SEF) or a designated contract market (DCM), unless an exception applies (e.g., the commercial...more
Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) certified two additional available to trade determinations (MAT determinations). The latest MAT determinations cover additional interest rate swaps (IRS) and, for the...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has requested public comment on determinations by Javelin SEF, LLC (Javelin) and trueEX, LLC (trueEX) to make certain interest rate swaps “available to trade.” Once those...more
New Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) swaps clearing rules will force non-financial entities to stop uncleared trading of certain interest-rate swaps (IRS) and index credit default swaps (index CDS) starting on...more