CFTC Substituted Compliance Determinations and No-Action Letters

On December 20, 2013, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") approved substituted compliance in the European Union and five other jurisdictions for a range of "entity-level" and "transaction-level" requirements of Dodd-Frank.¹  Pursuant to a substituted compliance determination, certain swap counterparties generally may comply with the requirements of a jurisdiction (e.g., those of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation in Europe) in lieu of comparable Dodd-Frank requirements.

These substituted compliance determinations appear to have been issued in connection with the expiration on December 21, 2013 of substantial portions of the July 21, 2013 CFTC cross-border exemptive order (the "Exemptive Order"),² which generally delayed application of the entity-level and transaction-level requirements of Dodd-Frank to certain non-U.S. swap counterparties.  The recent substituted compliance determinations covered the following requirements: