Six weeks ago, the Commodity Futures Commission issued a staff letter granting temporary permission for U.S. derivatives to be traded on certain European trading platforms that are not compliant with Dodd-Frank rules on transparent derivatives trading. This temporary permission for rules-free trading was only granted through March 24th, after which time European trading platforms were to be required to comply with new home country regulatory rules that would be similar to the rules governing U.S. trading platforms that are governed by Dodd-Frank.
Today, the CFTC extended the temporary permission for derivatives trading outside of Dodd-Frank rules until May 14th.
AFR disagrees on principle with permitting U.S. derivatives transactions outside of Dodd-Frank rules. However, as we said when the CFTC originally granted this temporary permission, the fact that the CFTC required the relevant European trading platforms to rapidly implement protections similar to the U.S. was an important positive element.
We are therefore disturbed by today’s delay in compliance requirements, and concerned about what the additional extension could mean for the future. The CFTC must insist that that the rules put in place to make the derivatives markets safer are rapidly implemented, and no further delays should be granted. Until this kind of
back door route out of Dodd Frank trading rules
is closed, long-delayed U.S. derivatives regulations will not be effective. If European trading platforms cannot fully implement these rules in a timely fashion, they should not be permitted to trade U.S. derivatives.