On September 8, 2016, the CFTC held an open meeting where the Commissioners: (i) unanimously approved two final rules regarding system safeguards and testing requirements for derivatives trading platforms, clearinghouses, and data repositories, and (ii) approved, over Commissioner Bowen’s dissent, a “comparability determination” for purposes of substituted compliance with Japan’s regulations regarding margin requirements for uncleared swaps.
Also noteworthy, though, were the closing remarks made by Chairman Timothy Massad, where he listed his priorities for the remainder of 2016. Specifically, Chairman Massad explained that he plans to ask the Commissioners to consider rulemakings on the following subjects before the end of the year:
- Reg AT: supplemental proposed rulemaking addressing certain issues raised in Reg AT
- Capital: re-proposal of the capital requirements for swap dealers and major swap participants originally proposed in 2011
- Cross-border: proposed rulemaking on the cross-border application of CFTC swap regulations
- Mandatory clearing: final regulations implementing the CFTC’s proposal to expand its clearing mandate to cover interest rate swaps denominated in certain additional currencies
- SEFs: proposed rulemaking to “fine-tune” the CFTC’s regulations governing swap execution facilities (SEFs) by codifying certain no-action letters previously issued by CFTC Staff
- Reporting: further rulemaking to “fine-tune” certain aspects of the CFTC’s data reporting procedures
Chairman Massad then addressed the elephant in the room: whether the CFTC will finalize its proposed regulations imposing new position limits and position aggregation requirements (which have been supplemented several times). According to Chairman Massad, he still hopes to finalize those rules by the end of the year.