On September 14, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Divisions of Market Oversight and Swap and Intermediary Oversight issued Staff Letter 16-72, which announced that Yieldbroker PTY Limited (Yieldbroker), a multilateral swaps trading facility licensed and regulated in Australia, has qualified for the long-term, no-action relief provided under Staff Letter 15-29. Staff Letter 15-29 provides qualifying swaps trading platforms that are licensed and regulated in Australia with long-term, no-action relief from swap execution facility (SEF) registration requirements. (For a more complete discussion of Staff Letter 15-29, see the here.) Yieldbroker will be the first foreign-regulated, multilateral SEF that permits direct access to US persons to qualify for SEF registration relief.

Pursuant to the requirements of Staff Letter 15-29, Yieldbroker has certified the following: (1) it is subject to post-trade transparency requirements; (2) it has provisions in place that provide for the requisite level of non-discriminatory access by market participants; (3) it is subject to the appropriate governmental oversight in Australia; and (4) it will be in ongoing compliance with certain reporting and clearing-related requirements set forth in Staff Letter 15-29. Relief under Staff Letter 15-29 will continue until the effective date of any CFTC exempt SEF framework adopted pursuant to Section 5h(g) of the Commodity Exchange Act.