On March 17, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a final rule amending CFTC Regulation 1.22 to remove the December 31, 2018 automatic termination date relating to the phased-in compliance period for the Residual Interest Deadline applicable to futures commission merchants (FCMs). 

Under CFTC Regulation 1.22, the Residual Interest Deadline is defined as the time each business day by which FCMs must maintain a sufficient amount of residual interest in their customers’ segregated accounts to cover customers’ undermargined accounts. The regulation sets the Residual Interest Deadline initially at 6:00 p.m. (ET) on the day of settlement. The phased-in compliance schedule, however, would have moved the Residual Interest Deadline to the time of daily settlement. That change was to go into effect no later than December 31, 2018, unless the CFTC took action to set a different Residual Interest Deadline. As a result of the CFTC’s removal of that date, the Residual Interest Deadline will remain 6:00 p.m. (ET) on the day of settlement pending further CFTC rulemaking. 

More information is available here.