The US and European Union have been working on an agreement over cross-border derivatives rules for a while now, and are finally closing in on a deal, according to Bloomberg.
The agreement will relieve EU trading platforms from being affected by US derivative trading rules, at least for the time being.
The deal is being handled by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and European Union officials, and while it seems they’ve come to an agreement over cross border-trading rules, nothing will be finalized until February 15th.
The US’s policy on cross-border trading had been a point on contention for many large banks, some of which have recently sued the CFTC over its ability to police trades that are made from banks outside of the country.
The CFTC claimed that any trades made by an outside bank that was essentially at all linked to a US trader would have to do so according to the CFTC’s rules. This policy however, was causing foreign banks to stop trading with the US and creating fragmentation within the market, according to banks involved with the issue.
This turnaround for the CFTC seems to mark the beginning of a different type of Commission, quite possibly caused by Gary Gensler stepping down as CFTC chairman. Gensler was known for policing the derivative market very strictly, and it seems likely that the CFTC will loosen up a bit with him gone.
