At the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission  open meeting on December 10, the CFTC approved one final and two proposed rules as follows:

• The CFTC unanimously approved a final rule to amend its Part 13 Rules regarding rulemaking. Because the Administrative Procedure Act governs the CFTC’s rulemaking process, this amendment eliminates the procedures for the formulation, amendment or repeal of CFTC rules or regulations. As a result, Part 13, as amended, will be comprised solely of the procedure for filing petitions for rulemakings.

• In a 3-2 vote, the CFTC reopened the comment period for the proposed capital and financial reporting rules for swap dealers and major swap participants, providing for a 75-day comment period after the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register. For a more complete discussion of the proposed capital and financial reporting rules, see the December 9, 2016 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest.

• The CFTC unanimously approved a proposed rule that would reinstate the expired alternative compliance frameworks for the inter-affiliate swaps clearing exemption, with minor revisions. This proposal would codify the relief provided by the Division of Clearing and Risk no-action letters and make the two alternative compliance frameworks permanently available to affiliated entities. There is a 60-day comment period following publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register.

The CFTC’s release is available here.

Additional information on these rulemakings, including statements of the Chairman and Commissioners, is available here.