Earlier today, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA) filed a proposal with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to further delay the implementation of amendments to its Rule 4210 that were adopted...more
Persons claiming exemptions from registration as a commodity pool operator (CPO) or a commodity trading advisor (CTA) must affirm their exemptions by March 1, 2018. Pursuant to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)...more
The Council of the European Union (EU) has proposed an amendment to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) that eliminates mandatory initial margin requirements for physically settled foreign exchange (FX)...more
On October 12, 2017, the Division of Clearing and Risk (Division) of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued an interpretative letter in response to a request for clarification on whether payments of...more
Earlier this week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight extended existing no-action relief from trading on a swap execution facility for package transactions until November 15, 2020....more
On May 30, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) adopted final rules to amend its existing regulation 1.31 (Regulation 1.31). Regulation 1.31 sets forth the form and manner in which all records retained in...more
On March 15, 2017, while speaking at the Annual International Futures Industry Conference, J. Christopher Giancarlo, the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and President Donald Trump’s nominee...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
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
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
U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Regulation 1.35 requires futures commission merchants (FCMs), retail foreign exchange dealers (RFEDs), introducing brokers (IBs) and members of a swap execution facility (SEF)...more
On November 18, the staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a much anticipated report on the de minimis exception from the “swap dealer” definition, the Swap Dealer De Minimis Exception Preliminary...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 21, the staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) published an exemptive letter that provides relief from periodic reporting on CFTC Form...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