September 9, 2013 is the date on which many interest rate swaps and credit default swaps, when entered into by non-financial commercial end users (Category 3 Entities), become subject to mandatory clearing under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act.
As a result, many businesses and public companies are currently faced with the task of determining whether or not they qualify for the exception, and once that determination has been made, ensuring that they take all relevant steps to comply with the final Title VII commercial end-user exception by September 9. This includes reporting the entity's election to take advantage of the commercial end user exception to a swap data repository.
Note that mandatory clearing under Title VII for these same interest rate swaps and CDS, when entered into between two Category 1 Entities (swap dealers, major swap participants and active funds (at least 200 trades per month), began on March 11, 2013. Clearing for these swaps when entered into between a Category 1 Entity and a Category 2 Entity (hedge funds, non-active funds, commodity pools and certain other financial counterparties) or between two Category 2 Entities began on June 10, 2013.