CFTC eases rules on residual interest withdrawals
On Jan. 26, the CFTC's division of swap dealer and intermediary oversight issued a no-action letter enabling futures commission merchants to withdraw excess residual interest in cleared swaps customer accounts under certain conditions. The division said it determined that the relief, which was requested by FIA on behalf of its clearing firm members, is warranted for withdrawals that "directly correspond" to customer margin payments received prior to the completion of the daily cleared swaps segregation calculation. The division explained that this will address a "timing gap" between the flow of margin payments collected from customers and the calculation of the amount of capital that FCMs have to deposit into their cleared swap customer accounts to cover any shortfall in customer margin.
