17 CFR Part 43 - REAL-TIME PUBLIC REPORTING

This release is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (“Commission” or “CFTC”) initial response to the order of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, et al. v. United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission remanding eight swaps-related rulemakings to the Commission to address what the court held to be inadequacies in the Commission's consideration of costs and benefits, or its explanation of its consideration of costs and benefits, in those rulemakings. In this release, the Commission: supplements the preambles to the remanded rulemakings by clarifying that the costs and benefits identified therein applied both to domestic swaps activities and activities outside the United States that are subject to the Commission's swaps rules by operation of section 2(i) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”); and solicits comments on whether there are cross-border costs or benefits associated with the remanded rules that differ from those associated with activities within the United States. Following its review of the comments, the Commission will publish a further response to the District Court remand order which would include any supplementation of or changes to its consideration of the costs and benefits of the relevant rules as set forth in the rule preambles. The Commission will also consider whether to amend any of these rules in light of information developed in this process.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is correcting a final rule that appeared in the Federal Register of May 31, 2013 (78 FR 32866). The final rule adopted regulations, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, defining the criteria for grouping swaps into separate swap categories and establishing methodologies for setting appropriate minimum block sizes for each swap category. These corrections fix errors in certain contract descriptions, block sizes, and block units listed in Appendix F to the final rule.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is adopting regulations to implement certain statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Specifically, in accordance with section 727 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commission is adopting regulations that define the criteria for grouping swaps into separate swap categories and establish methodologies for setting appropriate minimum block sizes for each swap category. In addition, the Commission is adopting further measures under the Commission's regulations to prevent the public disclosure of the identities, business transactions and market positions of swaps market participants.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) published the Real-Time Public Reporting of Swap Transaction Data (“Real-Time Public Reporting”) rule and an accompanying preamble in the Federal Register on Monday, January 9, 2012 (77 FR 1182). This document makes an editorial correction to language of the preamble that conflicted with the rule text of the final rule.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“Commission”) is issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking to add certain provisions to part 43 of the Commission's regulations pertaining to block trades in swap contracts. The provisions would: (i) Prohibit the aggregation of orders for different trading accounts in order to satisfy the minimum block size or cap size requirements, except for orders aggregated by certain commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”), investment advisers and foreign persons (as described in this release), if such person has more than $25,000,000 in total assets under management (“AUM”); (ii) provide that parties to a block trade must individually qualify as eligible contract participants (“ECPs”), except where a designated contract market allows certain CTAs, investment advisers and foreign persons (as described in this release), to transact block trades for customers who are not ECPs, if such CTA, investment adviser or foreign person has more than $25,000,000 in total AUM; and (iii) require that persons transacting block trades on behalf of customers must receive prior written instruction or consent from the customer to do so.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is proposing regulations to implement certain statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Specifically, in accordance with section 727 of the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commission is proposing regulations that would define the criteria for grouping swaps into separate swap categories and would establish methodologies for setting appropriate minimum block sizes for each swap category. In addition, the Commission is proposing further measures under the Commission's regulations to prevent the public disclosure of the identities, business transactions and market positions of swap market participants.

This document corrects language in the final rule published in the Federal Register of Monday, January 9, 2012, regarding the Real-Time Public Reporting of Swap Transaction Data. The Commission adopted rules to implement a framework for the real-time public reporting of swap transaction and pricing data for all swap transactions.