December 15, 2016

CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Relief from the Inter-Affiliate Exemption from Required Clearing for Affiliated Counterparties Located in Australia or Mexico

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) today issued no-action relief to swap market participants to permit a provision of the inter-affiliate exemption from required clearing to be relied upon for swaps executed between certain U.S. swap market participants and their affiliated counterparties located in Australia or Mexico. This relief offers counterparties located in Australia and Mexico the same relief that has been available to counterparties located in the European Union, Japan, and Singapore.

DCR is issuing this relief in light of the December 13, 2016 compliance date for the CFTC’s recent expansion of its clearing requirement to include fixed-floating interest rate swaps denominated in Australian dollars and Mexican pesos, as well as basis swaps denominated in Australian dollars. This provision, under regulation 50.52(b)(4)(ii), previously has been available only to European Union, Japan, or Singapore affiliated counterparties.

Last Updated: December 15, 2016