On July 13, the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted a miscellaneous set of amendments to, and issued some guidance concerning, its rules for the reporting on security-based swaps (SBSs). The amendments create the following new obligations related to reporting:

• A national securities exchange or security-based swap execution facility must report any SBS executed on the platform that will be submitted to clearing.
• A registered clearing agency must report any SBS to which it is a direct counterparty.
• An SBS data repository is prohibited from imposing fees or usage restrictions on the SBS transaction data that it is required by Regulation SBSR to publicly disseminate.
• A non-US person must report any SBS another non-US person that would otherwise be exempt from reporting if the SBS is arranged, negotiated, or executed by personnel or agents of such non-US person located in the United States.

The extensive guidance provided deals primarily with two topics. The first is the reporting of bunched order executions of cleared SBSs by investment managers and the second is the reporting of SBS involving prime brokers.

The SEC also adopted a final framework for phasing in compliance with the full suite of SBS reporting rules that includes three stages. Under this framework, SBS reporting will commence on Compliance Date 1, which is the first Monday on or after the later of (1) six months after the registration of the first SBS data repository, and (2) one month after the first date on which SBS dealers are required to register. Public dissemination of reported information about SBS will begin on Compliance Date 2, which is three months after Compliance Date 1. Finally, reporting of historical SBS (i.e., pre-enactment SBS executed before July 21, 2010 and transitional SBS executed between that date and Compliance Date 1) will begin on Compliance Date 3, which is two months after Compliance Date 2 (and therefore five months after Compliance Date 1).

The text of the amendments and guidance is available here.