Release Number 6043-11

May 25, 2011

CFTC Staff to Host Public Roundtable to Discuss Protection of Cleared Swaps Customer Collateral

Washington, DC — Staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold a public roundtable on June 3, 2011, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., to discuss issues related to the protection of cleared swaps customer collateral. The roundtable will assist the CFTC in the rulemaking process to implement the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The roundtable will be held in the Conference Center at the CFTC's headquarters at Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC. The discussion will be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of the public may also listen by telephone and should be prepared to provide their first name, last name and affiliation.

Listening information:

US Toll-Free: 1-866-844-9416
International Toll: 1-203-369-5026
Passcode: 6066025

A transcript of the public roundtable discussion will be published on the CFTC’s website at: /LawRegulation/DoddFrankAct/Rulemakings/DF_6_SegBankruptcy/index.htm.

Members of the public wishing to submit their views on the topics addressed at the roundtable may do so via:

  • paper submission to David Stawick, Secretary, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20581; or
  • electronic submission by visiting http://comments.cftc.gov and following the instructions for submitting comments through the CFTC's Web site.

All comments must be identified by RIN number 3038-AC99. All submissions provided to the CFTC in any electronic form or on paper may be published on the Commission’s website, without review and without removal of personally identifying information.

Agenda for the Public Roundtable Discussion:

9:30 a.m.

First Session

 

Implementation.

    a. What steps would need to be taken to implement the Complete Legal Segregation model?

    b. How would those steps change if the Commission were to adopt the Legal Segregation with Recourse model, the Futures model, or an Optional Approach?

    c. What specific timing for implementation of the Complete Legal Segregation model might be appropriate? How might such timing change if the Commission were to adopt the Legal Segregation with Recourse model, the Futures model, or an Optional Approach?

10:35 a.m.

Intermission

10:55 a.m.

Second Session

 

The Optional Approach

    a. How would the optional approaches in the Commission’s proposal be implemented?

    b. Bankruptcy Code considerations.

12:00 noon

Break for Lunch

1:30 p.m.

Third session

 

Advantages and disadvantages of the Complete Legal Segregation model, in comparison to the Legal Segregation with Recourse model, the Futures model, and any Optional Approach.

    a. What are the differences, if any, between swaps (cleared and uncleared) markets and futures markets that are relevant to this discussion?

    b. How important is portability to systemic risk?

    c. How do the operational costs vary across any of the models? What are the operational costs of each model?

    d. What are the risk costs of each model? How can such costs be measured?

    e. Which constituencies would bear such operational and risk costs? Among such constituencies, what proportion of such costs would each bear?

    f. To what extent is the reassignment of risk associated with a double default simply a transfer of liability (with associated payment) as opposed to an uncompensated transfer or a reassignment that imposes costs without significant offsetting benefits?

    g. To what extent do DCOs rely on fellow customer collateral? How does a DCO account for the possibility of pre-default transfers by non-defaulting customers?

5:00 p.m.

Roundtable concludes

Last Updated: May 25, 2011