The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission have adopted long-awaited final rules that provide further clarity around who will qualify as a swap dealer and major swap participant—labels that would subject such companies to a host of new compliance and reporting standards.
On April 18, the CFTC approved the final rule by a 4-1 vote jointly with the SEC, which approved the rule by a unanimous 5-0 vote. As an initial phase-in, the rule will define a regulated dealer as one that conducts swaps with a notional value of at least $8 billion in swaps over a 12-month period. The CFTC initially had set that threshold at $100 million in the proposed rule.
