CFTC Issues Extension of Conditional No-Action Relief for Swap Reporting Parties

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight issued a conditional, time-limited extension of the relief provided in CFTC Letter 13-41, et.al. The relief concerns the masking of certain identifying information that must be reported by swap reporting parties under Parts 20, 45 and 46 of the CFTC’s regulations. CFTC 13-41 and related letters were intended to address circumstances in which statutory or regulatory prohibitions, including the privacy laws of non-U.S. jurisdictions, may prevent reporting to trade repositories.

Notwithstanding the time extension provided by it, the current letter denies certain other relief requested by ISDA, including (at least for now) relief that would eliminate the requirement that the counterparty to the trade be a "Privacy Law Counterparty" as defined in CFTC Letter 13-41. However, the letter did permit the expansion of the list of "Enumerated Jurisdictions" to which the grant of relief might apply.

The letter extends relief provided originally in CFTC Letter 12-36, which was issued in December 2012 and its relief then extended in Letter 13-41. Letter 13-41 was issued in June 2013 and then amended by CFTC Letter No. 15-01, which was issued in January 2015. This latest extension expires at the earlier of (i) the reporting party's ceasing to hold the requisite reasonable belief regarding the privacy law consequences of reporting, or (ii) 12:01 a.m. (EST) on March 1, 2017.

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