Today marked the start of the first phase of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s “SOFR First” initiative, which it recommended for switching trading conventions from Libor to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee’s preferred Libor alternative, and by some measures, SOFR swaps accounted for 50% of total activity.
The Alternative Reference Rates Committee today made two significant announcements today. In the first, the ARRC recommended conventions and use cases for employing the forward-looking Secured Overnight Financing Rate term rates that are expected to be formally recommended by the ARRC in the coming days.
In a joint statement today, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division and Division of Market Oversight emphasized to market participants and swap execution facilities the importance of an orderly transition away from Libor.
As part of regulators’ efforts to facilitate the ongoing transition away from Libor, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Risk Advisory Committee today recommended “SOFR First” as a market best practice.
The variety of forward-looking term rates now available means that banks will have choices to offer when transitioning from Libor.
The Federal Reserve today finalized new categories of entities under the “financial institution” status under the FDIC Improvement Act’s netting provisions, first promulgated in Regulation EE in 1994.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today finalized a rule that exempts from clearing requirements certain swaps entered into by financial holding companies with less than $10 billion in assets.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a joint final rule today to harmonize their margin levels for security futures “whether they are held in a futures account, a securities portfolio margin account, or a securities account that is not approved for portfolio margining.”
ABA joined a coalition of financial trade groups last week welcoming action by financial regulators to provide regulatory relief to swaps market participants during the pandemic.
By a three-to-two vote, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday approved a final rule on the cross-border application of registration thresholds and other requirements to swap dealers and major swap participants