New York, NY, December 13, 2023 – SIFMA and SIFMA AMG today issued the following statements on the final rule issued by the SEC related to clearing for the U.S. Treasury Market:

Rob Toomey, managing director, associate general counsel and head of SIFMA’s capital markets practice said:

“We are still reviewing the final rule with our members and in particular those sections that appear to reflect our comments on ways to improve the rule.  As a general matter, while we are supportive of enhancing market resiliency including through increasing central clearing, we continue to believe the Commission should have adopted a staged approach to permit impact analysis to avoid introducing unnecessary risks to the Treasury market.

“In our December 2022 comments on the proposal, SIFMA proposed several steps to ensure that the SEC and the market could analyze comprehensively the impacts of additional clearing of Treasury transactions on each segment of the Treasury market and determine that the benefits to any central clearing requirement outweigh the costs.”

William C. Thum, managing director and associate general counsel, SIFMA AMG said:

“We are still reviewing the details of the final rule with our members and while the asset management community supports the expansion of clearing, we are concerned the  implementation of a mandate is not conditioned on the achievement of milestones with respect to the further development of the Commission’s rules, the enhancement of access models generally, the coordination of global rules to enable market participants to clear, and the significant development of liquidity within the cleared model.  This could inadvertently reduce market liquidity while at the same time exposing market participants to additional credit exposures and risks.”

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SIFMA is the leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers operating in the U.S. and global capital markets. On behalf of our industry’s one million employees, we advocate on legislation, regulation and business policy affecting retail and institutional investors, equity and fixed income markets and related products and services. We serve as an industry coordinating body to promote fair and orderly markets, informed regulatory compliance, and efficient market operations and resiliency. We also provide a forum for industry policy and professional development.  SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).