“Red Zone”

Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton on Dodd-Frank Implementation Progress

November 8, 2012

It’s football season and there’s a saying in the sport that a team getting close to the goal line is in the “red zone.” CFTC’s Dodd-Frank implementation and rulemaking processes are in the red zone, too.

It’s been a long drive down the field. We have finalized roughly two-thirds of the 60 rules we were charged with promulgating under the financial reform law. It’s taken longer than some of us hoped at the kickoff, but now the goal line is in sight.

I’ve put together an estimated time-line that clearly shows—on just one page—how close we are to completing the process. Many more rules will be finished by the end of the year. A few will move over into next year, primarily so that businesses, market participants and foreign regulators can make the practical adjustments they’ll need to make.

Yes, we still need to keep moving the ball but, we’re at a very manageable point in the process of completing this enormous undertaking. During the course of a football game there is always a lot of yelling and yelping both from the sidelines, and on the field. That happens in government too, and Dodd-Frank implementation is no exception. That said, what follows shows that, despite what some have argued, we have a game plan. Like in sports, game plans don't always go as planned, but you go forward and do the best you can to be successful.

CFTC Dodd-Frank Update
Commissioner Bart Chilton

GOAL: December 31, 2012
Final Rules:

Clearing Requirement Determination [this may go on November 15]
Cooperative Clearing Exemption
Inter-affiliate Clearing Exemption
SEF Rules
Block Trading Rule for Swaps
DCMs – Core Principle 9
Disruptive Trade Practices Interpretation
Records of cash commodity, futures, option, and swap transactions (Rule 1.35)
CPO Harmonization
RTO/ISO Exemptive Relief
201(f) Exemptive Relief
Segregation for Uncleared Swaps
Systemically Important Clearing Organizations –recovery time

Proposed Rules and Orders:

Guarantees of Swaps
Position Limits

Relief Expires:

Registration Relief for Certain IBs
Temporary Relief from the De Minimis Threshold
CPOs and CTAs doing FX
Cross-Border Interim Relief
Alternative Schedule for Compliance with Rule 1.74

GOAL: March 13, 2013
Final Rules:

Capital for SDs and MSPs
Margin for Uncleared Swaps
Governance and Conflict of Interest (DCMs, DCOs & SEFs)
Guarantees of Swaps
Identity Theft
Volcker Rule

Proposed Rules and Orders:

Stress Testing under Section 165
Systemically Important Clearing Organizations – Liquidity

Relief Expires:

Part 23, Subpart F – Internal Business Conduct Books and Records requirements
RTO/ISOs
201(f) electric utilities
ECP Status, Swap Guarantee Arrangements, Jointly and Severally Liable Counterparties, Amounts Invested on a Discretionary Basis, Anticipatory ECPs
Cleared Swaps in Agricultural and Exempt Commodities and EFSs

GOAL: June 1, 2013
Final Rules:

Cross-Border – Exemptive Order and Interpretive Guidance, any remaining issues

Last Updated: November 8, 2012