Quiero saber acerca de...

Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 14 / Monday, January 25, 2021 / Rules and Regulations other market participants may be encouraged to increase their participation in the uncleared swap markets. As a result, trading in uncleared swaps may increase, leading to increased liquidity and enhanced price discovery.
d. Sound Risk Management Because the amendments to Regulations 23.151 and 23.158a permit the application of larger amounts of MTA, less margin may be collected and posted to offset the risk of uncleared swaps. Nevertheless, the Commission believes that the risk is mitigated because the regulatory MTA thresholds are set at low levels, and CSEs are required to have a risk management program that provides for the implementation of internal risk management parameters for the monitoring and management of swap risk.
The Commission also notes that the amendments simplify the application of the MTA, reducing the burden and cost of implementation, without leading to an unacceptable level of uncollateralized credit risk. Such reduced burden and cost could encourage market participants to increase their participation in the uncleared swap markets, potentially facilitating improved risk management for counterparties using uncleared swaps to hedge risks. Moreover, by facilitating compliance with certain aspects of the Commissions regulations, the Commission allows market participants to focus their efforts on monitoring and ensuring compliance with other substantive aspects of the CFTC Margin Rule, thus promoting balanced and sound risk management.

jbell on DSKJLSW7X2PROD with RULES

e. Other Public Interest Considerations The amendment to Regulation 23.158a addresses the application of separate MTAs for IM and VM, contributing to the CFTCs alignment with other jurisdictions, such as the European Union, which advances the CFTCs efforts to achieve consistent international standards. The CFTCs alignment with other jurisdictions with respect to the application of the MTA
will benefit CSEs that are global market participants by eliminating the need to establish different settlement workflows tailored to each jurisdiction in which they operate.
C. Antitrust Considerations Section 15b of the CEA requires the Commission to take into consideration the public interest to be protected by the antitrust laws and endeavor to take the least anticompetitive means of
VerDate Sep<11>2014

17:40 Jan 22, 2021

Jkt 253001

achieving the objectives of the CEA, as well as the policies and purposes of the CEA, in issuing any order or adopting any Commission rule or regulation including any exemption under section 4c or 4cb, or in requiring or approving any bylaw, rule, or regulation of a contract market or registered futures association established pursuant to section 17 of the CEA.58
The Commission believes that the public interest to be protected by the antitrust laws is generally to protect competition. The Commission requested comment on whether the Proposal implicated any other specific public interest to be protected by the antitrust laws and received no comments.
The Commission has considered the Final Rule to determine whether it is anticompetitive and has identified no anticompetitive effects. The Commission requested comment on whether the Proposal was anticompetitive and, if it was, what the anticompetitive effects were, and received no comments.
Because the Commission has determined that the Final Rule is not anticompetitive and has no anticompetitive effects, the Commission has not identified any less anticompetitive means of achieving the purposes of the CEA.
List of Subjects 17 CFR Part 23
Swaps, Swap dealers, Major swap participants, Capital and margin requirements.
For the reasons stated in the preamble, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission amends 17 CFR
part 23 as set forth below:
PART 23SWAP DEALERS AND
MAJOR SWAP PARTICIPANTS
1. The authority citation for part 23
continues to read as follows:

Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1a, 2, 6, 6a, 6b, 6b 1,6c, 6p, 6r, 6s, 6t, 9, 9a, 12, 12a, 13b, 13c, 16a, 18, 19, 21.

2. Amend 23.151 by:
a. Revising the definition of minimum transfer amount; and b. Adding in alphabetical order a definition for separately managed account.
The revision and addition read as follows:

23.151 Definitions applicable to margin requirements.

Minimum transfer amount means a combined initial and variation margin amount under which no actual transfer 58 7

PO 00000

U.S.C. 19b.

Frm 00011

Fmt 4700

Sfmt 4700

6857

of funds is required. The minimum transfer amount shall be $500,000.
Where a counterparty to a covered swap entity owns two or more separately managed accounts, a minimum transfer amount of up to $50,000 may be applied for each separately managed account.

Separately managed account means an account of a counterparty to a covered swap entity that meets the following requirements:
1 The account is managed by an asset manager and governed by an investment management agreement, pursuant to which the counterparty grants the asset manager authority with respect to a specified amount of the counterpartys assets;
2 Swaps are entered into between the counterparty and the covered swap entity by the asset manager on behalf of the account pursuant to authority granted by the counterparty through an investment management agreement; and 3 The swaps of such account are subject to a master netting agreement that does not provide for the netting of initial or variation margin obligations across all such accounts of the counterparty that have swaps outstanding with the covered swap entity.

3. Amend 23.152 by revising paragraph b3 to read as follows:
23.152
margin.

Collection and posting of initial

b
3 Minimum transfer amount. A
covered swap entity is not required to collect or to post initial margin pursuant to 23.150 through 23.161 with respect to a particular counterparty unless and until the combined amount of initial margin and variation margin that is required pursuant to 23.150 through 23.161 to be collected or posted and that has not been collected or posted with respect to the counterparty is greater than the minimum transfer amount, as the term is defined in 23.151.

4. Amend 23.153 by revising paragraph c to read as follows:
23.153 Collection and posting of variation margin.

c Minimum transfer amount. A
covered swap entity is not required to collect or to post variation margin pursuant to 23.150 through 23.161
with respect to a particular counterparty unless and until the combined amount of initial margin and variation margin
E:FRFM25JAR1.SGM

25JAR1