November 6, 2014

CFTC Staff Issues Time-Limited No-Action Relief to Allow Southwest Airlines and its Counterparties Additional Time for Public Reporting of Long-Dated Brent and WTI Crude Oil Swap and Swaption Contracts Executed by or with Southwest Airlines

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued time-limited, no-action relief to Southwest Airlines and its counterparties to allow additional time to comply with the reporting obligation in §43.3(a), in the context of transactions in long-dated Brent and WTI crude oil swaps and swaptions.

The CFTC reporting rules contemplated phase-in compliance with the reporting requirements based on market participants, place of execution and underlying asset. The no-action relief responds to the request by Southwest Airlines for additional time to comply with the reporting obligations for Brent and WTI crude oil swap and swaption contracts with the expiration dates of at least two years out. DMO has provided time-limited relief to Southwest Airlines and its counterparties provided that:

• These contracts are not subject to the mandatory clearing requirement;
  
  
• The expiration dates of these contracts is at least two years out; and
  
  
• These contracts must be reported to a Swap Data Repository no later than 15 calendar days after they have been executed by Southwest or its counterparties.
  
  

This relief expires upon the CFTC’s determination that Brent and WTI crude oil swap and swaption contracts are subject to the mandatory clearing requirement and/or upon DMO’s determination that there is sufficient liquidity in such contracts and thus a shorter time period for the real-time reporting is warranted.

Last Updated: November 6, 2014