Statement of Support
Chairman Gary Gensler
June 29, 2012
I support the proposed guidance on the cross-border application of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd Frank Act). The Commission is not required to solicit public comment on interpretive guidance, but we are particularly interested in the public’s input and look forward to comments on the proposed guidance.
In 2008, swaps, and in particular credit default swaps, concentrated risk in financial institutions and contributed to the financial crisis, the worst economic crisis Americans have experienced since the Great Depression. Eight million Americans lost their jobs, millions of families lost their homes, and small businesses across the country folded.
Congress and the President responded with the Dodd-Frank Act, bringing common-sense rules of the road to the swaps marketplace.
Section 722(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act states that swaps reforms shall not apply to activities outside the United States unless those activities have “a direct and significant connection with activities in, or effect on, commerce of the United States.”
In interpreting Section 722(d), we must not forget the lessons of the 2008 crisis and earlier. Swaps executed offshore by U.S. financial institutions can send risk straight back to our shores. It was true with the London and Cayman Islands affiliates of AIG, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Bear Stearns. A decade earlier, it was true, as well, with Long-Term Capital Management.
The nature of modern finance is that large financial institutions set up hundreds, if not thousands of “legal entities” around the globe.
They do so in an effort to respond to customer needs, funding opportunities, risk management and compliance with local laws. They do so as well, though, to lower their taxes, manage their reported accounting, and to minimize regulatory, capital and other requirements, so-called “regulatory arbitrage.” Many of these far-flung legal entities, however, are still highly connected back to their U.S. affiliates.
During a default or crisis, the risk that builds up offshore inevitably comes crashing back onto U.S. shores. When an affiliate of a large, international financial group has problems, the markets accept this will infect the rest of the group.
This was true with AIG. Its subsidiary, AIG Financial Products, brought down the company and nearly toppled the U.S. economy. It was run out of London as a branch of a French-registered bank, though technically was organized in the United States.
Lehman Brothers was another example. Among its complex web of affiliates was Lehman Brothers International (Europe) in London. When Lehman failed, the London affiliate had more than 130,000 outstanding swaps contracts, many of them guaranteed by Lehman Brothers Holdings back in the United States.
Yet another example was Citigroup, which set up numerous structured investment vehicles (SIVs) to move positions off its balance sheet for accounting purposes, as well as to lower its regulatory capital requirements. Yet, Citigroup had guaranteed the funding of these SIVs through a mechanism called a liquidity put. When the SIVs were about to fail, Citigroup in the United States assumed the huge debt, and taxpayers later bore the brunt with two multi-billion dollar infusions. The SIVs were launched out of London and incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
Bear Stearns is another case. Bear Stearns’ two sinking hedge funds it bailed out in 2007 were incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Yet again, the public assumed part of the burden when Bear Stearns itself collapsed nine months later.
A decade earlier, the same was true for Long-Term Capital Management. When the hedge fund failed in 1998, its swaps book totaled in excess of $1.2 trillion notional. The vast majority were booked in its affiliated partnership in the Cayman Islands.
The recent events of JPMorgan Chase, where it executed swaps through its London branch, are a stark reminder of this reality of modern finance.
The proposed guidance interpreting Section 722(d),intended to be flexible in application, includes the following key elements:
First, it provides the guidance that when a foreign entity transacts in more than a de minimis level of U.S. facing swap dealing activity, the entity would register under the Dodd-Frank Act swap dealer registration requirements.
Second, it includes a tiered approach for foreign swap dealer requirements. Some requirements would be considered entity-level, such as for capital, chief compliance officer, swap data recordkeeping, reporting to swap data repositories and large trader reporting. Some requirements would be considered transaction-level, such as clearing, margin, real-time public reporting, trade execution, trading documentation and sales practices.
Third, entity-level requirements would apply to all registered swap dealers, but in certain circumstances, foreign swap dealers could meet these requirements by complying with comparable and comprehensive foreign regulatory requirements, or what we call “substituted compliance.”
Fourth, transaction-level requirements would apply to all U.S. facing transactions. For these requirements, U.S. facing transactions would include not only transactions with persons or entities operating or incorporated in the United States, but also transactions with their overseas branches. Likewise, this would include transactions with foreign affiliates that are guaranteed by a U.S. entity, as well as the foreign affiliates operating as conduits for a U.S. entity’s swap activity. Foreign swap dealers, as well as overseas branches of U.S. swap dealers, in certain circumstances, may rely on substituted compliance when transacting with foreign affiliates guaranteed by or operating as conduits of U.S. entities.
Fifth, for certain transactions between a foreign swap dealer (including an overseas affiliate of a U.S. person) and counterparties not guaranteed by or operating as conduits for U.S. entities, Dodd-Frank transaction-level requirements may not apply. For example, this would be the case for a transaction between a foreign swap dealer and a foreign insurance company not guaranteed by a U.S. person. There are some in the financial community who might want the CFTC to ignore the hard lessons of the crisis and before.
They might comment that swap trades entered into in London branches of U.S. entities do not have a direct and significant connection with activities in, or effect on U.S. commerce.
They might comment that affiliates guaranteed by a U.S. mother ship do not have a direct and significant connection with activities in, or effect on U.S. commerce.
They might comment that affiliates acting as conduits for swaps activity back here in the United States do not have a direct and significant connection with activities in, or effect on U.S. commerce.
If we were to follow these comments, though, American jobs and markets might move offshore, yet the risk associated with such overseas swaps activities, particularly in times of crisis, would still have a direct and significant connection with activities in, or effect on U.S. commerce.
Last Updated: June 29, 2012