The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will keep the swap dealer de minimis threshold at $8 billion at least through the end of 2019, Chairman Chris Giancarlo told the House Agriculture Committee today. The threshold had been scheduled to drop to $3 billion at the end of 2018. He also pledged to bring the issue to his fellow CFTC commissioners for a permanent resolution in 2018.
The American Bankers Association has strongly advocated — most recently to the Treasury Department — for maintaining or raising the de minimis threshold, noting that lowering it could limit the ability of many commercial end users to access the swaps market in order to manage risk responsibly. ABA will continue to engage with the CFTC as it deliberates over the proper threshold level. For more information, contact ABA’s Ananda Radhakrishnan.
