Prudential Regulators in the United States Adopt Margin Rules for Swaps and Security-Based Swaps

On October 22, 2015, the OCC, the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System, the FDIC, the Farm Credit Administration and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (collectively, the "Agencies") adopted (i) a joint final rule¹ to establish minimum margin requirements for registered swap dealers, major swap participants, security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants (collectively, "swap entities") for which one of the Agencies is the prudential regulator² ("covered swap entities" or "CSEs") and (ii) a companion interim final rule³ (and request for comment) to implement margin exemptions added by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 ("TRIPRA") for swaps and security-based swaps that qualify for the clearing exemptions and exceptions available under the Dodd-Frank Act and implementing regulations to non-financial entities (including commercial end-users, captive finance subsidiaries and small