CFTC adopts final rules to ease swap regulatory requirements

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday said the final rule codifies existing staff no-action positions for CFTC’s business conduct and documentation requirements applicable to market participants dealing with swaps.

“The commission is eliminating duplicative, unnecessary requirements and excessive costs that have negatively impacted American competitiveness for over 10 years with no measurable benefit,” said acting chair Caroline Pham. “I’m pleased to clean up the lack of regulatory clarity and create clear, simple rules that will promote more efficient and well-functioning markets.”

Meanwhile, the CFTC’s Market Participants Division (MPD) on Thursday announced it has issued a related no-action letter in connection with swaps intended to be cleared and traded on eligible UK trading venues, superseding an earlier CFTC staff letter in light of the adopted final rule.

The watchdog in its latest no-action letter said the final rule applies—to swaps cleared by a derivatives clearing organisation (DCO) registered with the Commission or a clearing organisation that has been exempted from registration by the Commission pursuant to provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act—on the date of execution and intended to be cleared contemporaneously with execution.

Michael Selig was on Thursday confirmed by the US Senate as the CFTC's new permanent chair. Pham is set to step down from the CFTC and take up a role at fintech MoonPay when Selig takes up the position.

The CFTC last month granted exemptions to the Washington-based Structured Finance Association (SFA), as part of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) broader push to simplify rules.

The US regulator in December standardised three separate definitions of ‘US person’, under its Dodd-Frank Act cross-border swap framework.