Alternative Market Briefing

CFTC issues final rules on swaps and swap dealer requirements

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Bailey McCann, Opalesque New York: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today approved final rules to improve the risk management procedures of swap dealers and major swap participants. As Opalesque has previously reported, once the rules go into effect, they will trigger additional provisions already outlined through the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act directed the Commission to adopt rules on the timely and accurate confirmation, processing, netting, documentation, and valuation of all swaps, as well as the reconciliation and compression of swap portfolios. These rules fulfill this congressional direction. Many of these final rules establish the product definitions that will set the scope for how swaps markets activities and swaps dealers will be supervised through both the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to the regulator, "confirmation, portfolio reconciliation, and portfolio compression have been recognized as essential post-trade processing mechanisms for reducing risk and improving operational efficiency." The rules are designed to inform risk management procedures within firms, they will go into effect 60 days from when they were entered into the Federal Regis......................

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