February 20, 2018

CFTC Staff Extends Time-Limited No-Action Relief for Entities Submitting Swaps for Clearing with Derivatives Clearing Organizations Acting Under Exemptive Orders or No-Action Relief

Washington, DC — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (Division) today announced the extension of time-limited no-action relief to entities submitting swaps for clearing by derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) operating under CFTC exemptive orders or no-action relief provided by CFTC staff (Relief DCOs).

Today’s action extends relief for entities submitting such swaps for clearing (Relief DCO Counterparties) from obligations to terminate the original “alpha” swap and to report any swaps between the Relief DCO Counterparties and the Relief DCO. Relief DCOs are required to report such resulting swap data by the terms of their exemptive or no-action relief. This action also provides relief for counterparties to report certain primary economic terms (PET) data fields for swaps intended to be cleared by a Relief DCO (Relief ITBC Swaps) as a cleared swap.

The letter announcing the relief states that the Division will not recommend that the CFTC take an enforcement action against a Relief DCO Counterparty for failure to report continuation data on the original swap cleared by the Relief DCO, or for failure to report creation or continuation data on swaps between the Relief DCO and Relief DCO Counterparty. This relief is conditioned on the Relief DCO Counterparty providing certain information to the Relief DCO to allow the Relief DCO to fulfill its reporting obligations. This relief will expire on the earlier of (a) February 19, 2021; (b) the effective date of any CFTC regulation altering the reporting obligations of any entities with respect to the reporting of Relief DCO Original Swaps or Relief DCO Clearing Swaps; or (c) the revocation or expiration of the exemptive order or no-action letter issued to the relevant Relief DCO.

The letter extending relief also states that the Division will not recommend that the CFTC take an enforcement action against any entity reporting a Relief ITBC Swap as a cleared swap in certain PET data fields for that swap. The relief is conditioned on the reporting entity consistently reporting all such Relief ITBC Swaps as if they are to be cleared with a CFTC-registered DCO. The relief extended for reporting entities on PET data fields will expire on the earlier of (a) February 19, 2021; (b) the effective date of any CFTC regulation altering or amending the “Clearing indicator” or “Clearing venue” PET data fields in Part 45 of the CFTC’s regulations, or the “Cleared or Uncleared” data field in Part 43 of the CFTC’s regulations; or (c) the revocation or expiration of the exemptive order or no-action letter issued to the relevant Relief DCO.

Last Updated: February 20, 2018