Our Finance Group helps clients navigate the business and legal complexities of novel and multidimensional debt financing transactions. We fully understand the challenges faced by borrowers, investors and lenders throughout a company’s lifecycle, from evolving techniques in acquisition finance to the tensions inherent in distressed situations. We are the firm of choice for the most innovative and complex financing matters, including bespoke structured financings and whole-business securitizations of novel assets and restructurings of multibillion-dollar companies.
Department of Treasury Proposes to Exempt FX Swaps and FX Forwards from the definition of “swap” under the Commodity Exchange Act
May 18, 2011
On April 29, 2011, the Department of the Treasury (the "Treasury") issued a Notice of Proposed Determination (the "Proposed Determination") to exempt foreign exchange swaps ("FX Swaps") and foreign exchange forwards ("FX Forwards") from the definition of "swap" under the Commodity Exchange Act (the "CEA"). Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (the "Dodd-Frank Act") introduced a comprehensive set of reforms of the over-the-counter derivatives markets intended to reduce risk, increase transparency and provide accountability for market participants. These reforms include real-time public reporting of swap trade data, mandatory central clearing and exchange trading of eligible swaps, capital and margin requirements applicable to swaps, and business conduct rules. The Proposed Determination would exempt FX Swaps and FX Forwards from many of these requirements.