US Securities And Exchange Commission Reopens Comment Period For Access To Data Obtained By Security-Based Swap Data Repositories

On January 15, 2016, the SEC reopened the comment period for proposed amendments to rule 13n-4 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1945. The Dodd-Frank Act added sections 13(n)(5)(G) and (H) to the Exchange Act, requiring security-based swap data repositories to make data available to certain regulators and other entities, subject to certain conditions. The SEC proposed rules to implement those data access conditions on September 14, 2015. As part of the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 (Public Law 114 94) signed into law on December 4, 2015, certain of those conditions were revised, including, most notably, eliminating a requirement that the recipient of such data agree to indemnify the swap data repository and SEC for expenses arising from litigation relating to the information provided. The law also clarified that the data access was limited to security-based swap data, and not all data maintained by the repository, and added "other foreign