The Division of Market Oversight (“Division” or “DMO”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC” or “Commission”) is providing a no-action position regarding the requirements in section 2(h)(8) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA” or “Act”) and Commission regulation 37.9, for credit default swaps (“CDS”) that are executed for the sole purpose of migrating open CDS positions from ICE Clear Europe Ltd. (“ICEU”) to a new central clearing counterparty (“CCP”) ahead of ICEU’s planned discontinuation of CDS clearing services in October 2023.

Extension of no-action relief letter 21-24 that was issued to ensure the continued availability, following Brexit of no-action positions under certain existing CFTC comparability determinations and exemption orders originally issued by the CFTC for EU entities, while CFTC staff undertakes an analysis of UK law in order to make appropriate recommendations of comparability or exemption to the CFTC.

The Division is extending its no-action positions for those package transactions where at least one individual swap component is made available to trade (“MAT”) and therefore subject to the CEA section 2(h)(8) trade execution requirement, and all other components are contracts for the purchase or sale of a commodity for future delivery, i.e., futures contracts (“MAT/Futures Package Transactions”).

DMO is providing time-limited relief from the trade execution requirement in order to facilitate the orderly transition from swaps that reference the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) and other interbank offered rates to swaps that reference alternative benchmarks.  (ARRC No-Action Relief Extension Request)

Extension of No-action relief letters 20-39 and 21-17 which were granted to ensure the continued availability, following Brexit, of regulatory relief under certain existing CFTC comparability determinations and exemption orders originally issued by the CFTC for EU entities, while CFTC staff undertakes an analysis of UK law in order to make appropriate recommendations of comparability or exemption to the CFTC.

Amendment of existing DMO Staff Relief in Staff Letter 20-39 to United Kingdom (“UK”) multilateral trading facilities (“MTFs”) and organised trading facilities (“OTFs”) to provide relief to additional UK MTFs and OTFs and their participants.

Brexit-related time limited no-action position with respect to certain swap dealer transaction-level requirements

No-action letter extending relief from section 2(h)(8) of the Commodity Exchange Act for any eligible affiliate counterparty that executes a swap transaction with another eligible affiliate counterparty

No-action relief permitting an FCM clearing member to, in the event of a customer default, effect swap transactions pursuant to LCH’s default rules and procedures without executing such transactions on a SEF, exempt SEF, or DCM as required by the trade execution requirement.

The Divisions do not interpret Sections (2)(h)(1) and 2(h)(8) of the CEA as subjecting to the clearing and trade execution requirements certain swaps transactions entered into by a DCO to reduce and manage the risk associated with a clearing member default.