CFTC Publishes Rulemaking Agenda

In its Spring 2024 Regulatory Agenda, the CFTC published a list of rulemakings scheduled to be proposed or finalized over the next year.

The agenda was published as part of the government-wide "Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions." The agenda was organized under three sections: (i) Prerule Stage, (ii) Proposed Rule Stage and (iii) Final Rule Stage. There are seven rules at the proposed rule stage, including among them, amendments to revise business conduct and documentation requirements for swap dealers, amendments to the made available to trade process and revisions to the supplemental standards of ethical conduct for CFTC employees. There are 16 rules at the final rule stage, including, to name a few, regulations on: the treatment of separate accounts by FCMs, conflicts of interest and governance requirements for swap execution facilities, amendments to swap dealer capital and reporting requirements and the protection of clearing member funds held by DCOs.

In a dissenting statement, Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger objected to the absence of "an important proposed rulemaking regarding the CFTC's uncleared swap margin rules," which was approved by the Commission during an Open Meeting last year. She said the proposed rule was "withdrawn from the Agenda—with neither transparency nor explanation." She said that the "withdrawal of the proposal diminishes the work of [the] advisory committees and staff, and undermines the [Commission's] historical comity."