On April 21, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Divisions of Market Oversight, Clearing and Risk, and Market Participants issued two Requests for Comment (RFCs) on 24/7 trading and clearing of derivatives...more
5/13/2025
/ CFTC ,
Comment Period ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Derivatives ,
Digital Assets ,
Financial Markets ,
Proposed Rules ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Risk Management ,
Technology
On April 17, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended the expiration date of a no-action statement (Compliance Statement) regarding compliance with reporting rules for security-based swap data repositories...more
On January 21, 2025, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) published version 2.0 of the 2002 Equity Derivatives Definitions (Versionable Edition) (Equity Definitions VE). The updated version...more
On February 25, 2025, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) Division of Enforcement (Division) issued an Advisory on how to evaluate a firm’s self-reporting, cooperation, and remediation (referred to...more
On Tuesday, February 25, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a one-year extension of the compliance dates for its clearing mandate for certain US Treasury cash and repurchase (repo) transactions, in...more
On January 2, 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC) published an order approving a proposed rule change filed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) to adopt the new FINRA Rule 6500...more
The Joint Audit Committee has published guidance (Guidance) with respect to the appropriate account documentation required for futures commission merchants (FCMs) to substantiate a grant of discretionary trading authority for...more
On Monday, November 27, 2021, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the CFTC proposed amendments to NFA Compliance Rule 2-7 to exclude associated persons (APs), designated as “swap” APs, from the Branch Office...more
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) filed a proposed rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 22, 2020, to once more delay the implementation of amendments to FINRA Rule...more
1/12/2021
/ Adjustable-Rate Mortgage ,
Amended Regulation ,
Broker-Dealer ,
Collateralized Loan Obligations ,
Comment Period ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Margin Requirements ,
Mortgages ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Time Extensions
On April 3, 2020, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) issued a statement recommending an extension to Phases 5 and 6 of the initial margin...more
The requirement that non-cleared swaps be fully margined, which is one of the last pillars of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), will take effect for “financial end-users”...more
On August 16, 2016, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) published the ISDA 2016 Variation Margin Protocol (VM Protocol). The VM Protocol is intended as a tool to help market participants that will...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
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 July 13, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) published the ISDA EMIR Classification Letter (the Classification Letter), a form of letter that may be used by market participants managing their...more
On June 10, the European Supervisory Authorities (ESA) published a second consultation paper on draft Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) to implement the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) requirement that...more
When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted final rules in June 2014 on the cross-border activities of security-based swap (SBS) dealers and major SBS participants, the SEC indicated that it would reserve the...more
On February 11, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published final regulations that will require Swap Data Repositories (SDRs)1 to register with the SEC (Regulation SDR) and prescribe reporting and public...more
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s mandatory clearing requirement for interest rate swaps and certain credit default swaps has been in place for quite some time. However, the clearing requirement...more
On January 16, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a settlement order requiring Summit Energy Services, Inc. (Summit Energy) to pay a $140,000 civil monetary penalty for acting as an unregistered commodity...more
For the past several years, low interest rates and higher commodity prices have resulted in generally favorable financial conditions in the energy sector, keeping energy bankruptcy activity to a minimum. With the recent sharp...more
1/30/2015
Toward the end of 2014, the staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued two letters affecting insurance-linked securitization vehicles: CFTC...more
On January 8, 2015, the U.S. Senate approved legislation, by a 93-4 vote, to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (“TRIA”). The legislation, dubbed the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (the...more
1/12/2015
/ CFTC ,
Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) ,
Covered Entities ,
Major Swap Participants ,
Margin Requirements ,
Pending Legislation ,
Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) ,
Swap Dealers ,
Swaps ,
Terrorism Insurance ,
TRIA
On November 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) issued a no-action letter to expand previously issued relief, that is available to “treasury affiliates,” from the...more
On November 10, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a consultation paper relating to the Regulatory Technical Standards and Implementing Technical Standards (collectively, the Technical Standards),...more