MFA submitted a letter to the UK House of Lords in response to a Call for Evidence from the Subcommittee regarding the European Commission’s Communications on ensuring safe and sound derivatives markets. In our letter, we: (i) discussed the benefits of the derivatives markets; (ii) noted that derivatives helped market participants to hedge their risk exposures during the worst months of the financial crisis; (iii) agreed that the European Commission’s approach to monitor and, when appropriate, to impose minimum collateral levels with respect to non-cleared derivatives transactions is the correct level of oversight; and (iv) encouraged the European Commission to coordinate its regulation and oversight of the derivatives markets with other regulators around the world to prevent market segmentation

MFA submitted a letter to the Department of the Treasury regarding the Obama administration's legislative proposal titled the "Over-the-Counter Derivatives Markets Act of 2009" ("DMA"). A copy of the proposal can be found here. In our letter, MFA provided a number of comments, which we believe are consistent with the proposal's public policy goals and will further enhance the benefits of OTC derivatives regulation.

MFA submitted a letter following a call on June 9, 2009 among MFA staff, MFA members, the SEC, CFTC, New York Fed, Federal Reserve Board, FDIC and OCC, as well as SIFMA regarding the standardization and clearing eligibility of OTC derivatives. This interagency regulatory group provided good feedback about the information and views that MFA and its members presented during the call.

MFA, through its participation in the Operations Management Group (OMG), joined the Major Dealers in presenting a letter to global regulators establishing new commitments to address key concerns in the OTC derivatives markets. In particular, the letter commits that its signatories will maintain support of commercially viable centralized clearing platforms, universally report all OTC derivatives trades and promote sound business practices. MFA issued a press release announcing the new commitments identified in the letter. A plain-language summary and chart of the letter’s commitments were issued by its signatories.

MFA announced that it is joining the 17 major derivatives dealers as a signatory to a letter to global regulators that develops new commitments to improve operational efficiency across OTC derivatives, as well as commodities and foreign exchange markets and collateral management. Click here for a copy of the letter and click here for a copy of the supplement to the letter.

MFA, ISDA and SIFMA delivered an implementation plan that they developed jointly to help enable buy-side market participants to operate consistently with the relevant goals outlined in the March 27^th letter to the New York Fed. The implementation plan consists of three fundamental strategies: (1) communication and education, (2) facilitation and use of electronic confirmation and novation platforms, and (3) electronic confirmation matching improvement.

Click here for a copy of the implementation plan.

Click here for the Summary of the 2008 Industry Commitments.

Click here for the final agenda for the MFA, ISDA and SIFMA live session.