Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger on Extension of Staff No-Action Letter Regarding Investments in Securities with Adjustable Rate of Interest Benchmarked to SOFR
December 23, 2022
I support extension of the staff no-action relief in Letter 21-02 regarding investments of customer funds by futures commission merchants in permitted investments that contain an adjustable rate of interest that is benchmarked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (also known as SOFR), and the expansion of that staff no-action relief to derivatives clearing organizations.
This relief is yet another instance of successive extensions of staff no-action relief on issues that the Commission has failed to address permanently.[1] Unlike others, though, a proposed rulemaking that could address this issue on a permanent basis is included in the Commission’s “Agency Rule List” published in the “Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.”[2] I look forward to the Commission’s consideration of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for public comment that encompasses this topic in the near future.
[1] See, e.g., Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of CFTC Staff No-Action Letter Addressing Certain Swap Reporting Obligations (December 2, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of CFTC Staff No-Action Letter Addressing Certain Swap Reporting Obligations | CFTC; Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-31 for Swaps Executed as part of Certain Package Transactions (November 9, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-31 for Swaps Executed as part of Certain Package Transactions | CFTC; Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-37 (October 28, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of Staff No-Action Letter 20-37 | CFTC; Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding No-Action Relief to Korea Exchange (October 17, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding No-Action Relief to Korea Exchange | CFTC; Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of No-Action Relief from Certain Position Aggregation Requirements under CFTC Regulation 150.4 (August 10, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of No-Action Relief from Certain Position Aggregation Requirements under CFTC Regulation 150.4 | CFTC; Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger on Extension of No-Action Relief to Shanghai Clearing House (July 26, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger on Extension of No-Action Relief to Shanghai Clearing House | CFTC; and Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger on Order of Registration Regarding AEGIS SEF, LLC (July 20, 2022), available at Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger on Order of Registration Regarding AEGIS SEF, LLC | CFTC.
[2] See Regulatory Information Service Center, Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Spring 2022), available at Agency Rule List - Spring 2022 (reginfo.gov).
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