On September 27, 2016, Timothy Massad, Chairman of the CFTC, spoke at the SIFMA annual meeting about clearinghouse regulation, technological changes and finishing Dodd-Frank rulemaking. Massad first highlighted ongoing CFTC work regarding stress testing across multiple clearinghouses to study systemic issues and interdependencies, recovery plans for systemically important clearinghouses and the CFTC's involvement in international coordination regarding clearinghouse recovery and resolution.
He next focused on two technological issues, cyberattack risk and automated trading. He highlighted CFTC rules regarding cyberdefense testing for market infrastructure firms. He also discussed efforts the CFTC has taken to address challenges posed by automated trading including working to finalize Regulation AT, which is designed to address the risk of disruption posed by automatic trading.
Finally, Chairman Massad discussed the CFTC's work finalizing rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act, including the margin rules on uncleared swaps that went into effect on September 1, 2016. He noted that the CFTC is considering lowering the de minimis threshold (i.e., when an entity's swap dealing activities require the entity to register with the CFTC) for swap dealing (from $8 billion to $3 billion). He also noted that the CFTC intends to repropose rules on capital requirements for swap dealers and major swap participants and that he expects the CFTC to issue a rule on certain aspects of cross-border application of swaps rules this fall.
Chairman Massad's remarks are available at: http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opamassad-48.
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