CFTC and SEC to Collaborate on Portfolio Margining and Swap Data Reporting Rules
CFTC Chair Michael S. Selig highlighted the increasing necessity of collaboration between the SEC and CFTC, and announced the agencies expect to issue joint requests for comment on portfolio margining and swap data reporting.
In remarks at the FINRA 2026 Annual Conference, Mr. Selig outlined an ambitious agenda for regulatory harmonization between the CFTC and SEC — one that could reshape how broker-dealers, swap dealers, and compliance teams across the industry operate day-to-day. On swap data reporting, he described ongoing efforts to better align CFTC reporting rules with the SEC's Regulation SBSR ("Security-based Swap Reporting"). He said the goal is to reduce discrepancies between the two frameworks and improve the overall quality and usability of the data both agencies collect.
Mr. Selig also observed that portfolio margining has long been a pressure point for market participants who hold positions across both securities and derivatives — products that fall under different regulatory umbrellas but carry related economic risk. He said that joint rulemaking in this area would allow for more efficient capital treatment and reduce the cost of maintaining hedged positions across asset classes.
Mr. Selig also urged FINRA and the NFA to coordinate more closely with each other as the lines between securities and commodity derivatives shift and firms increasingly navigate both regimes at once. He identified coordinated examinations, alignment on recordkeeping and surveillance, consistent approaches where appropriate, and shared insights on emerging risks as opportunities for greater SRO collaboration, while saying the goal is alignment rather than merger of the two SROs' distinct roles.
Mr. Selig described the self regulatory organizations as a critical extension of federal market regulation, providing the scale and specialization that federal agencies cannot replicate on their own and creating a feedback loop between policy and practice. He said FINRA's oversight of broker-dealers provides more robust supervision of member firms than the SEC could perform alone, and that the NFA's oversight of swap dealers provides continuous supervision the CFTC would find difficult to replicate.