The CFTC has announced that DTCC-SWIFT will provide CFTC Interim Compliant Identifiers (CICI), the first step in a process that will eventually lead to a permanent global legal identity identifier (LEI) system.
By enabling swap market participants to easily identify their counterparties when reporting swap data, LEIs will make swap markets more transparent, in line with the goals of the Dodd-Frank Act.
The agency decided to implement its temporary identifier scheme when it became apparent that the international effort to create a permanent system, coordinated by the Financial Stability Board would not yield results in time to satisfy new rules promulgated by the CFTC that require swap market participants to report trade data including counterparty LEIs.
The CFTC found that DTCC-SWIFT is the only provider whose identifier both satisfies all swap data reporting rules and will be available sufficiently in advance of the initial compliance date for swap data reporting to enable compliance with the rules.