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
On May 24, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted final rules (cross-border margin rules) that specify how its recently issued uncleared margin rules apply to cross-border transactions. Chairman Timothy...more
On April 4, 2016, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) proposed guidance that would exclude certain capacity contracts in electric power markets (capacity contracts) and natural gas peaking supply contracts from...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) adopted a final rule effective March 21, 2016, that eliminates the reporting and recordkeeping requirements under the CFTC’s existing trade option exemption for...more
Recent regulatory actions by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the European Commission (EC) are bringing an end to years of negotiation on how to regulate central clearing counterparties (CCPs)...more
The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued no-action relief from the requirement to register as an introducing broker (IB), commodity trading advisor...more
In two separate Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) enforcement actions before district courts in New York and Chicago, the CFTC has asked each court to adopt holdings that would significantly enhance the CFTC’s...more
As interest in bitcoin derivatives has increased, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has turned more of its attention toward virtual currencies. For a little more than a year, at least two trading facilities...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has proposed new rules — Regulation Automated Trading (Regulation AT) — that would impose new and potentially burdensome risk and compliance controls on any person engaged in...more
Following the 2008 financial crisis, regulators across the globe have pondered how to ameliorate systemic risk in derivatives markets. At the 2009 G-20 summit, international regulators committed to address this risk through...more
Federal banking regulators (Prudential Regulators) have finalized much-anticipated rules (Final Rules) relating to initial and variation margin requirements for certain swaps and security-based swaps that are not centrally...more
11/3/2015
/ Affiliates ,
CFTC ,
Commercial End-User Exception ,
Compliance Dates ,
Covered Swap Entities (CSE) ,
Cross-Border ,
Customer Collateral Requirements ,
Derivatives ,
Final Rules ,
Investment Management ,
Margin Requirements ,
Non-Cleared Swaps ,
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swaps
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently took a series of actions confirming views expressed late last year by CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad that "[d]erivatives contracts based on a virtual currency represent...more
10/2/2015
/ Bitcoin ,
CFTC ,
Commodities ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Derivatives ,
Jurisdiction ,
Popular ,
SEFs ,
Swap Trading ,
Swaps ,
Virtual Currency
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) unanimously approved a final rule (“Final Rule”) that formally extends the existing registered futures association (“RFA”) membership requirement to registered introducing...more
9/14/2015
/ Brokers ,
CFTC ,
Commodity Pool ,
Commodity Trading Advisors (CTAs) ,
CPOs ,
Derivatives ,
Final Rules ,
Investment Adviser ,
Major Swap Participants ,
National Futures Association ,
NFA ,
Registered Futures Association Membership ,
Registration Requirement ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps
On August 5, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final registration rules for security-based (SB) swap dealers and major SB swap participants (collectively SBS Entities). Concurrently, the SEC also...more
8/13/2015
/ CFTC ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Major Swap Participants ,
Registration Requirement ,
SBS Entities ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Security-Based Swaps ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps ,
Threshold Requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) recently proposed rules1 to address the cross-border application of margin requirements for uncleared swaps for swap dealers and major swap participants not subject to...more
On May 12, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued revised interpretive guidance for forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality (EVO). In 2012, the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission...more
Trade options are physically settled over-the-counter options on most deliverable commodities (e.g., agricultural, energy, or metals) where the buyer is a producer, processor, commercial user or merchant of the commodity...more
On April 29, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules1 that would address how registration, SEC Regulation SBSR and other SEC requirements for security-based swap transactions would apply to a...more
Last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued no-action relief that provides chief compliance officers (CCOs) of registered swap dealers (SDs),...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued three releases with final and proposed regulations addressing the reporting of security-based swaps (SB swaps) called for by the Dodd-Frank Act. The regulations...more
As the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) completes the derivatives regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, the European Union continues to develop its own derivatives rules. Both sets of regulations seek to...more
Annual Report Advisory -
On December 22, 2014, the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (Division) of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released an advisory (Advisory) providing...more
On November 3, 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) approved three proposals that Chairman Timothy Massad described as “fine tuning” certain of the CFTC’s rules “to make sure they do not impose...more
Federal banking regulators (the Prudential Regulators) have re-proposed regulations to require certain dealers and major participants in the swap and security-based swap markets to collect initial and variation margin for...more
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) has further extended the comment periods for its November 2013 proposal concerning position limits aggregation and its December 2013 proposal concerning position...more