June 10, 2011

CFTC and SEC Staffs to Host Public Roundtable Discussion on Proposed Dealer and Major Participant Definitions under Dodd-Frank Act

Washington, DC — The staffs of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced that they intend to hold a joint public roundtable on June 16, 2011, to discuss proposed definitions required under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act).

The Dodd-Frank Act provides that the CFTC and the SEC, in consultation with the Federal Reserve, must work jointly to further define the meaning of certain key terms including “swap dealer,” “security-based swap dealer,” “major swap participant” and “major security-based swap participant.” Title VII also provides for the registration of dealers and major participants, and will subject them to a number of statutory requirements including capital, margin and business conduct requirements.

The CFTC and SEC have received more than 130 comment letters from the public in response to rules they proposed on December 7, 2010, to define these terms. These public comments have helped inform the commissions about a range of issues raised by these definitions.

The roundtable is intended to supplement these comments and help further inform the agencies as they proceed with final rulemaking. The discussion will focus on such issues as:

• General parameters of dealer activity
• Application of the dealer definitions among different types of asset classes
• Application of the de minimis exception from the dealer definitions; and
• Adequacy of the proposed major participant tests

The roundtable will be held from 9:00 am to 3:45 pm in the Conference Center at the CFTC’s Headquarters, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC. The discussion will be open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.

Members of the public also may listen by telephone: US Toll-Free (866) 844-9416; Conference ID: 7731946. See Related Document for International Toll numbers.

Public comment files have been set up to receive input on the commissions’ proposed rules to further define certain key terms in Title VII, including the dealer and major participant definitions. Members of the public wishing to comment may do by:

CFTC: through the CFTC’s Comments Online application.

SEC: by email to [email protected] (all emails must reference the file numbers 4-633 and S7-39-10 in the subject field) or through the comment form available at http://www.sec.gov/rules/other.shtml.

All submissions provided to the CFTC or SEC in any form may be published on the website of the respective agency, without review and without removal of personal identifying information.

Last Updated: June 10, 2011