CFTC Staff Letters

Exemptive Relief to Finisterre from 4.22 to Use IFRS

Exemptive Relief to Gavea from 4.22 to Use IFRS

Exemptive Relief to ABD from 4.22 to Use IFRS

Extension of Time-Limited No-Action Relief with Respect to Certain Commodity Exchange Act Provisions That May Apply to Southwest Power Pool, Inc. and/or Its Participants

The Division will grant the above time-limited no-action relief from the requirements for SEFs to capture post-trade allocation information in their audit trail data and to conduct associated audit trail reviews of post trade allocations, and will not recommend that the Division take enforcement action against any SEF that does not capture post-trade allocations in its audit trail data or conduct associated audit trail reviews of post trade allocations, as required by Commission regulations 37.205(a) and (b)(2).

ISDA indicates that the industry should be able to review all swaps within 10 minutes after execution by May 1, 2016. Other industry participants have indicated that they should be able to do so by August 1, 2016. Therefore, the AQATP standard may be met if trades are routed to and received by the relevant DCO no more than 10 minutes after the execution of the trade, effective on August 1, 2016 and thereafter. Staff notes that the reporting obligations of SEFs and DCMs contained in Regulations 43 and 45 are not affected by this letter. In particular, a SEF or DCM must report a swap transaction to the appropriate Swap Data Repository as soon as technologically practicable after execution of the swap in accordance with Regulations 43.3 and 45.3 regardless of when the swap is submitted for clearing.Market participants should be aware that the positions taken herein do not excuse affected persons from compliance with any other applicable requirements of the CEA or the Commission’s regulations thereunder, in particular, the applicable swap data reporting requirements, clearing requirements, pre-execution credit check requirements, and straight-through processing requirements.

Proper reporting of swaps is an important obligation of SDs and MSPs. Firms should ensure that they have the systems and controls to properly report and to timely identify and correct any errors. Firms should periodically test their systems to ensure that the information is being properly transmitted. Further, any changes in systems that could have an effect on proper reporting should be tested and verified prior to any such changes.

As the Commission continues to consider the issues in the Proposed Amendment, the Divisions believe an extension of the no-action relief in CFTC Staff Letter No. 14-147 is warranted. Accordingly, with respect to Regulation 1.35(a), the Divisions will not recommend an enforcement action against a CTA that is a member of a DCM or of a SEF for failure to maintain records of oral communications and will not recommend an enforcement action against a market participant subject to Regulation 1.35(a) on the grounds that its records of oral and written communications that lead to the execution of a transaction are not linked to or otherwise identified with a particular transaction.

Wells Fargo requests no-action relief permitting the London Branch and its counterparties to comply with the relevant requirements applicable to its Foreign Clients in lieu of the Commissions Transaction-Level Requirements. Wells Fargo requests the no-action relief only with respect to swaps between the London Branch and its Foreign Clients. Based on the foregoing and the representations made by Wells Fargo, the Divisions believe that granting no-action relief is warranted.

The purpose of this letter is to extend no-action relief previously granted by the Division of Clearing and Risk (Division) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission) under No-Action Letter 14-135 that addressed certain challenges faced by market participants arising from the fact that other jurisdictions are still in the process of implementing mandatory clearing regimes.