Almost two years after the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted into law, on 10
July 2012 the US CFTC voted 4-1 to approve a 600-page final rule, jointly
developed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to further
define the statutory term “swap”. Not
only does the definition provide greater clarity on which financial products
can be expected to fall within regulatory oversight, and thus become subject to
reporting, clearing, capital and margin requirements, but passage of the rule
also sets the compliance dates for a string of other Commission rules governing
the $650 trillion over-the-counter global swaps markets. Those include rules on
swap dealers (SD) and major swap participants (MSP) registration, SD and MSP
swap data reporting and recordkeeping, registration of swap data depositories,
large trader reporting for registered SDs and MSPs, real time reporting of swap
transactions and pricing data, internal and external business conduct standards
and position limits.
