Commission confirms EMIR RTS adoption: On 13 February, the Commission adopted without amendment regulatory technical standards (RTS) proposed by ESMA under the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) specifying the contracts that are considered to have a direct, substantial and foreseeable effect within the EU or to prevent the evasion of rules and obligations. (Source: Commission Confirms EMIR RTS Adoption)
EU/US dialogue progresses: The Commission and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have announced significant progress in their negotiations to harmonise derivatives trading laws. CFTC has issued a “Conditional No-Action Letter” which provides no-action relief for:
- qualifying multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) from Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) registration requirement;
- parties executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from the trade execution mandate under CEA; and
- swap dealers and major swap participants executing swap transactions on qualifying MTFs from certain requirements under the CFTC’s business conduct rules and for which these registrants otherwise would receive or be subject to similar regulatory treatment if executing swap transactions on SEFs.
A separate Short-Term No-Action Letter gives limited relief for all registered MTFs until 24 March, in order to provide sufficient time for MTFs to identify themselves to the CFTC as a condition to the relief and comply with certain other conditions for obtaining relief pursuant to the Conditional No-Action Letter. Both parties will continue to work on further improvements now MiFID 2 has achieved political agreement. (Source: EU/US Dialogue Progresses)
