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
Five federal financial regulatory agencies today finalized a rule that removes the requirement for covered swap entities to collect initial margin from affiliates—an American Bankers Association-supported change that fosters systemic risk mitigation and allows swap entities to better manage liquidity.
As financial institutions around the globe continue preparing to transition financial contracts away from the London Interbank Offered Rate, which is not guaranteed to be sustained after 2021, BAFT—ABA’s global transaction banking subsidiary—and the International Trade and Forfaiting Association noted that the transition could have implications for master participation agreements.
In a comment letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today, ABA urged the agency not to move forward with a proposal that would prohibit “post-trade name give-up” practices for swaps that are anonymously executed on a swaps execution facility and are intended to be cleared.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday proposed new and amended regulations regarding speculative position limits.
Financial firms that have not started their work to transition from the London Interbank Offered Rate and making fallback plans for contracts—especially loans—that currently reference it need to begin right away, the Basel, Switzerland-based Financial Stability Board said in a progress report today on the reference rate transition.
The Securities Exchange Commission today finalized a package of proposed changes and guidance related to the regulation of cross-border security-based swaps, including single-name credit default swaps.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission last week issued a proposal intended to provide relief for market participants from the swaps clearing requirement.