External participants raised questions concerning requirements for capital for swap dealers and about SEFs under proposed rules issued by CFTC. In particular asked about capital requirements for possible CFTC registrants that clear all their swaps.

Meeting to discuss the timing of a DCO's acceptance of a swap for clearing.

Discussion regarding in-house transactions.

Participants discussed issues related to the swap dealer and major swap participant definitions.  In particular BG Americas takes the view that the swap dealer definition is too broad, and that it would be helpful if the Commissions specified what activities do not constitute swap dealing.  For the de minimis exemption, BG Americas recommended setting a higher notional amount at first, that could modified in light of data received about the markets.  BG Americas also expressed concern with footnote 128 of the proposing release (in connection with the major swap participant de

ICAP’s Chris Ferrari commented on SEF rulemaking provisions regarding the role of voice brokers at SEFs and pre-trade transparency. He also commented on requirements regarding the release of data to the public by SDRs.

The external attendees made some drafting suggestions related to their written comments on the proposed External Business Conduct Standards rules and further discussed the views expressed in the SIFMA/ISDA February 17 comment letter.

The discussion centered on the de minimis exception from the definition of swap dealer, and whether different de minimis thresholds should apply to different types of entities.  CoBank expressed the view that farm credit system institutions should be subject to a higher de minimis threshold to create a level playing field with insured depository institutions, which are eligible for a statutory exception from the definition for swaps in connection with the origination of loans.  CoBank explained that the swaps it enters into are also in connection with the origination of

Discussion relating to implementation and registration of existing repositories.

On June 7, 2011, staff met with Markit to discuss various aspects of their comment letters relating to real-time reporting. 
Method of Public Dissemination
Markit mentioned that the CFTC’s real-time proposal would lead to more fragmentation than the SEC’s proposal since the SEC’s proposal mandates public dissemination through an SDR.  Markit suggests that real-time reporting should be mandated through an SDR (giving the SDR the ability to delegate the dissemination to a third party).
Normalization of Pricing

On June 9, 2011, staff met with Markit to follow up on some issues relating public dissemination of swap transaction and pricing data.