On 27 March 2014, ISDA published its CFTC IM Segregation Right Notice, designed to assist compliance with CFTC rule 23.701 which requires swap dealers and major swap counterparties to notify their counterparties of their right to require the segregation of initial margin posted as collateral in relation to uncleared swap transactions

CFTC and Canadian Regulators Agree Entent Cordiale On 27 March 204, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Alberta Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission, and the Autorite des marches financiers (the “Authorities”) announced that they had reached agreement over the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) regarding

CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia gave a speech late last week at the workshop on the Financialisation of Commodity Markets. The Republican Commissioner recast a number of his favourite bêtes noires with a commodity-specific slant, his argument separates into thee main strands: The Present Commodity markets are highly volatile, legitimate hedging is an important part of […]

21st March 2014. As previewed in the “path forward“, the CFTC issued a short-term extension to No-action Letter 14-16, exempting EU MTFs from the SEF registration and trade execution mandates[1]. The press release has the catchy title, “CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight Provides Extension of Temporary No-Action Relief with respect to Swaps Trading on Multilateral […]

On 21 March 2014, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued No-Action Letter No 14-32, providing relief in relation to the swap dealer (SD) registration rules for firms entering into “utility commodity swaps” with “utility special entities”. SD registration rules require firms to register as SDs if

CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia has told the mlex news organisation that mandatory SEF trading of packaged swaps will be phased-in. “We’re not going to have a big bang,” O’Malia  said in an interview at last week’s Futures Industry Association’s annual conference, “We’ll have a phase-in by products.” Although lacking in details, this is a nod […]

Better Late Than Never: CFTC Consults on Data Reporting Rules Long aware of the need to improve its data collection and quality standards, on 19 March 2014 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) published a request for public comment on Part 45 of its Swap Data Reporting rules. Part 45 requires the real-time reporting of […]

Speaking before the FIA last week, CFTC Acting Chairman Mark Wetjen emphasised the global nature of the derivatives markets and the consequent need for regulatory harmonisation. He began his speech praising the substituted compliance framework, opining that the comparability standard incentivises foreign jurisdictions to “harmonize their risk management, reporting, clearing, and execution standards with U.S. […]

The Regulatory Oversight Committee (ROC), FSB-mandated overlord of the global LEI system has published a document containing a table of the four digit prefix numbers randomly allocated to each pre-LOU (Local Operating Unit). Each pre-LOU must qualify and be sponsored by a national regulator. The London Stock Exchange for instance, sponsored by the FCA, will […]