Maureen A. Donley

Skadden Discusses LIBOR Replacement Plans

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Plans to end the long reign of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) as one of the world’s most often-used interest rate benchmarks have recently been confirmed by several top financial regulators. On July 27, 2017, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), announced that LIBOR is to be transitioned to alternative rates during the next four years,1 marking a sharp departure from the FCA’s prior recommendation to reform the benchmark.2 Less than a week later, J. Christopher Giancarlo, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and Jerome Powell, a governor of … Read more

Skadden Discusses Swaps Regulations

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Swaps transactions, virtually unregulated before the 2008 financial crisis, are regulated in the U.S. under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act. Title VII empowers the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), for most swaps, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, for the balance of swaps (securities-based swaps), to adopt a comprehensive regulatory framework. Many other G-20 countries have added similar responsibilities for financial regulators given the role swaps played in the financial crisis.

The CFTC now is being run by Acting Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo. He is the lone Republican CFTC commissioner and recently criticized many, but not all, of the … Read more

Skadden Discusses a House Bill that May Shake Up CFTC Rulemaking

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Less than two weeks into the new congressional session, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by a vote of 239 to 182 the Commodity End-User Relief Act1 (the Bill or House Bill), marking the first step by the new post-election Congress to pare down elements of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act (Dodd-Frank). The Bill would reauthorize the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) for five years, at an annual budget level that would be unchanged from last year.2 Many key provisions in the House Bill, including some added on the House floor … Read more

Skadden on Swap Regulation: The CFTC and SEC Chart the Road Ahead

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The Dodd-Frank Act authorized the CFTC and the SEC to develop comprehensive regulations for swap transactions and security-based swaps, respectively. Considering swaps generally were unregulated before Dodd-Frank, the CFTC and the SEC have been writing for two years on a blank slate. In 2012, the agencies began to fill in many of the blanks, but much work remains for 2013 and beyond.

In 2012, the CFTC and the SEC finished the specific joint Dodd-Frank Act assignments Congress gave them: The agencies finalized the product definitions (rules defining “swaps” and “security-based swaps”) and the entity definitions (rules defining “swap dealer” and … Read more

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