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Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee and Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Representative Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) both issued statements in support of the CFTC's vote to exclude utility-operations-related swaps with utility special entities from the de minimis threshold for swaps with special entities. The Final Rule for Utility Swaps is aimed at preserving the ability of natural gas and electricity utilities to enter into swaps transactions to hedge their risks. See : House Ag Committee Press Release (Including Statements). R elated news: CFTC Finalizes Rule on Swaps with Special

77 FR 9734 The CFTC is adopting final rules to implement the Dodd-Frank Act's business conduct requirements for swap dealers and major swap participants in their dealings with counterparties, including "Special Entities." These rules prescribe external business conduct standards for swap dealers and major swap participants. In particular, the rules prohibit certain abusive practices, require disclosures of material information to counterparties and require SDs/MSPs to undertake certain due diligence relating to their dealings with counterparties, but do not apply to transactions initiated on a

Commentary by Nihal Patel

CFTC Acting Chair Mark Wetjen and Commissioner Scott O'Malia issued statements at the public roundtable concerning end users and Dodd-Frank. Acting Chair Wetjen and Commissioner O'Malia both stated that they are pleased to see the CFTC hold a meeting to address issues concerning end users. Acting Chair Wetjen stated that the CFTC will publish a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would amend the de minimis exception from swap dealer registration to address an issue as to government-owned electric utilities and special entities. He explained that, going forward, the CFTC "must continue to remain

The CFTC announced that a public roundtable is scheduled for April 3, 2014, to discuss issues concerning end users. The roundtable will cover the following issues: the obligations of end users under CFTC Rule 1.35 ("Records of Commodity, Interest and Related Cash or Forward Transactions") concerning recordkeeping for commodity interest and related cash or forward transactions; the appropriate regulatory treatment of forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality; and the appropriate regulatory treatment for purposes of the $25 million ("special entity") de minimis threshold for swap

The CFTC announced three actions to address problems in prior rulemakings: (i) a proposed rule amendment to the swap dealer de minimis provisions that would allow parties to enter into a meaningful volume of swaps with utility special entities before being required to register with the CFTC, (ii) an extension of the comment period on the CFTC's proposed position limits as applied to commercial market participants, and (iii) the promotion of end-user trading on swap execution facilities ("SEFs") and designated contract markets ("DCMs"). Both Acting Chairman Wetjen and Commissioner O'Malia