SIFMA today released the following statement from Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr., president, in response to remarks given by CFTC Commissioner Mark Wetjen on cross-border treatment of derivatives under Dodd-Frank at the Futures Industry Association and Futures & Options Association International Derivatives Expo.
“With the July 12th deadline fast approaching, an extension of the exemptive order on the cross-border treatment of swaps is what is necessary. Issuing final guidance or interim final guidance would be premature because the Commission and the SEC need time to harmonize how US law applies overseas. Critically, they need to harmonize approaches to ‘substituted compliance’ with foreign regulators working to implement comparable rules in their jurisdictions. We believe rushing forward now, even with interim final guidance, before those pieces are in place, will not ultimately lead toward a harmonized and transparent global derivatives regulatory regime.”