Faced with a looming October deadline to register as swaps dealers with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a foreign banking industry group is asking the CFTC to extend the deadline.
The Institute of International Bankers (IIB), joined by French bank Société Générale, requested the extension in an open letter released Thursday, citing the burden of having to quickly come into compliance with a number of new rules.
The cross-border application of the Dodd-Frank Act remains a hotly contested issue. Although the CFTC has softened its approach in recent months, allowing substituted compliance for entities based in jurisdictions with a comparable regulatory environment, opposition has continued, and the rules may change again before they are finalized. The IIB cited that possibility in calling for an extension.
“Global firms will be left without sufficient time to consider (the rule) and may effectively be required to incur many of the registration and compliance costs for which (the rule) would otherwise provide relief,” the IIB said.
