On February 25, 2019, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Bank of England, including the Prudential Regulation Authority (BoE), and the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a joint statement (“Statement”) regarding derivatives trading and clearing activities between the UK and the US after the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (“Brexit”), which is currently scheduled for 11:00 p.m. GMT on March 29, 2019[1]. The Statement is not a legal document, but expresses the intentions of the CFTC and UK regulators to take certain measures by the end of March 2019, in addition to reaffirming their commitment to close cooperation, to maintain the continuity of derivatives trading and clearing activities after Brexit.
Specifically, the Statement notes that the BoE, FCA, and CFTC have in place information-sharing and cooperation arrangements to support the effective cross-border oversight of derivatives markets and participants and to promote market orderliness, confidence, and financial stability, and that the BoE, FCA, and CFTC are in the process of updating the memoranda of understanding that reflect these arrangements, in light of Brexit.
The Statement goes on to list the specific actions the CFTC, BoE, and FCA each individually will take. According to the Statement, the CFTC intends that existing regulatory relief granted by the CFTC to EU firms, including UK firms, will be extended to UK firms at the point of Brexit through the following measures:
The UK authorities have confirmed in the Statement that US trading venues, firms, and CCPs will be able to continue providing services in the UK. The basis on which these trading venues, firms and CCPs currently provide services in the EU and to EU firms is the result of various decisions made by the European Commission in declaring the relevant CFTC regulatory frameworks equivalent. The Statement notes that UK firms will continue to be able to access these entities on the same basis as EU firms do today, by means of the following measures:
[1] The Statement is available at https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/7876-19?utm_source=govdelivery.
[2] The applicable existing no-action letters referenced in the Statement that will be applied to UK market participants are CFTC Letter 12-70 (Relief for Certain Swap Dealers, De Minimis Dealers, Agent Affiliates, and Associated Persons from Registration as an Introducing Broker under Section 4d or a Commodity Trading Advisor under Section 4m of the Commodity Exchange Act, and Interpretation that Certain Employees of De Minimis Dealers are not an Introducing Broker as defined in Section 1a(31) of the Commodity Exchange Act); Letter 13-45 (No-Action Relief for Registered Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants from Certain Requirements under Subpart I of Part 23 of Commission Regulations in Connection with Uncleared Swaps Subject to Risk Mitigation Techniques under EMIR); Letter 17-64 (Extension of Time-Limited No-Action Relief from Certain Requirements of Part 45 and Part 46 of the Commission’s Regulations, for Certain Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants Established under the Laws of Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan or Switzerland); Letter 17-66 (No-Action Relief from Certain Provisions of the Outward-Facing Swaps Condition in the Inter-Affiliate Exemption from the Clearing Requirement); and Letter 17-67 (Extension of No-Action Relief from Commodity Exchange Act Section 2(h)(8) for Swaps Executed Between Certain Affiliated Entities that Are Not Exempt from Clearing Under Commission Regulation 50.52).
[3] The Statement notes that the relevant orders are substituted compliance for EU entity-level and transaction-level requirements (December 27, 2013); substituted compliance for EU margin requirements for uncleared swaps (October 13, 2017); and exemption of multilateral trading facilities and organized trading facilities authorized within the EU from the requirement to register as swap execution facilities (December 8, 2017).
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