Ms. Melissa Jurgens
Secretary of the Commission
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
Re: Comment Letter on the Exemptive Order Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (RIN 3038-AE85) and Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (RIN 3038-AD85)
Dear Ms. Jurgens:
The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”), the Futures Industry Association (“FIA”) and The Financial Services Roundtable (“The Roundtable”) (together, the “Associations”) 1 appreciate the recent efforts of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission”) to phase in compliance with the Commission’s Title VII swap regulatory regime through the Exemptive Order Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (the “Exemptive Order”).2 Since the Exemptive Order provides phase-in compliance for the Commission’s Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement Regarding Compliance with Certain Swap Regulations (the “Guidance”), we are also providing comments on certain aspects of the Guidance. We believe that due consideration of these comments may be useful for the Commission as it considers the Exemptive Order and as it fulfills its commitment to periodically review the Guidance and is critical to achieving an effective and orderly implementation of Title VII and the Commission’s regulations.3
We believe that the Exemptive Order and Guidance reflect a number of very challenging implementation issues, which we describe in the first part of this letter. In addition to these conceptual concerns, we have identified significant technical issues and ambiguities that raise serious concerns for our members in seeking to implement Title VII requirements. We present these issues in greater detail, and our recommendations for how the Commission should address them, in Annex A to this letter.