CFTC Issues No-Action Letters for Australian Qualifying Licensed Markets and an Australian Swaps Trading Platform ( CFTC Letters 15-29 15-30)

The CFTC announced that it issued an updated enabling-no-action letter for qualifying Australian licensed markets in addition to a no-action letter to Yieldbroker Pty Limited to provide additional time for compliance with CFTC requirements.

The CFTC stated that Yieldbroker Pty Limited ("Yieldbroker") confirmed that it intends to apply for relief and achieve compliance by October 15, 2015, under CFTC Letter 15-29, which applies to qualifying swaps trading platforms that are licensed in Australia and overseen by the Australian Securities Investments Commission ("Qualifying Australian Licensed Markets" or "QALMs").

For those reasons, the CFTC issued two no-action letters that will facilitate Yieldbroker's application for long-term no-action relief:

• Letter 15-29, which is an enabling no-action letter for QALMs and which replaces CFTC No-Action Letter 14-117; and
• Letter 15-30 to extend conditional, short-term no-action relief for Yieldbroker, which is a swaps trading platform located and regulated in Australia that permits direct access to U.S. persons to transact swaps.

Previously, the CFTC issued Letter 14-117 to provide conditional no-action relief to (i) QALMs from the SEF/DCM registration requirement, (ii) parties executing swap transactions on QALMs from the trade execution mandate, and (iii) swap dealers and major swap participants executing swap transactions on QALMs from certain business conduct requirements.

The CFTC explained that if Yieldbroker's application for relief pursuant to Letter 15-29 is approved by the CFTC, then Yieldbroker would become the first Australian swaps trading platform that permits direct access to U.S. persons to qualify under a framework that is not required to register as a swap execution facility or designated contract market.

See: CFTC Letter 15-29; CFTC Letter 15-30; CFTC Press Release.