On February 12, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued relief from registration as a swap execution facility (SEF) to multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) regulated within the European Union. To qualify for such relief, an MTF was required to submit a request to DMO that satisfied the conditions set forth in CFTC Letter No. 14-16. DMO simultaneously issued CFTC Letter No. 14-15, which provided temporary no-action relief to such an MTF until the earlier of March 24, 2014, or DMO’s issuance of a letter granting the MTF’s relief request pursuant to CFTC Letter No. 14-16. A Katten Client Advisory covering CFTC Letters Nos. 14-15 and 14-16 is available here.

DMO has now issued CFTC Letter No. 14-31, which provides that DMO and the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight intend to issue yet another no-action letter to supersede and replace No-Action Letter 14-16. (As of March 21, no MTF had submitted a formal relief request to DMO pursuant to CFTC Letter No. 14-16.) The replacement no-action letter will provide similar long-term relief to MTFs, but will contain certain clarifications and other amendments. In the interim, CFTC Letter No. 14-31 extends temporary no-action relief from SEF registration to an MTF until the earlier of May 14, 2014, or DMO’s issuance of a letter granting an MTF’s relief request pursuant to the replacement no-action letter. 

CFTC Letter No. 14-31 is available here.