Registration requirement for SDs and MSPs (see Legal Update, Final Rules on Registration of Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants under Dodd-Frank Issued by CFTC). Aggregation of swap transactions for the purposes of determining whether an entity is an SD or MSP begins on October 12, 2012 (60 days after publication of the final definitional rules in the Federal Register). Firms have two months from the end of the month they cross the $8 billion notional threshold in non-exempt swap activity to register as swap dealers. That means if a firm crosses the threshold in mid-October, it would not be required to register until December 31, 2012. Therefore, as a practical matter, firms are not required to register as SDs or MSPs until December 31, 2012, at the earliest (though they may choose to do so earlier). For more information on these thresholds and other SD/MSP criteria, see Practice Note, Is Your Client a Swap Dealer or Major Swap Participant? Breakdown of Final Dodd-Frank Definitional Rulemaking.

Final rules on swap data reporting and recordkeeping, known as "SDR rules." Though these rules technically take effect October 12, 2012, as a practical matter, parties do not need to begin reporting data under these rules until January 1, 2013 (see Practice Note, Summary of the Dodd-Frank Act: Swaps and Derivatives: Swap Data Reporting Requirements).

Final rules on real-time public reporting of swap transaction and pricing data Though these rules technically take effect October 12, 2012, as a practical matter, parties do not need to begin reporting data under these rules until January 1, 2013 (see Practice Note, Summary of the Dodd-Frank Act: Swaps and Derivatives: Swap Data Reporting Requirements).

Final rules on reporting of historical swap data Though these rules technically take effect October 12, 2012, as a practical matter, parties do not need to begin reporting data under these rules until January 1, 2013 (see Practice Note, Summary of the Dodd-Frank Act: Swaps and Derivatives: Swap Data Reporting Requirements).

External business conduct standards and requirements for SDs and MSPs in their dealings with their customers with which they enter into swaps (see Legal Update, Final External Business Conduct Rules for Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants under Dodd-Frank Issued by CFTC). Compliance by SDs and MSPs with these rules has been delayed by the CFTC until January 1, 2013 to permit parties time to bring their documentation into compliance with the rules (see Legal Update, CFTC Delays Compliance with External Business Conduct Standards for Swap Dealers). For more information on the final external business conduct rules for SDs and MSPs, as well as suggestions and information on how parties may comply with the documentational aspects of these rules, see Practice Note, Swap Dealers and MSPs: Final Dodd-Frank External Business Conduct (EBC) Rules.

Transaction-level requirements that address internal business conduct for US SDs and MSPs These take effect October 12, 2012 (60 days after publication of the final definitional rules in the Federal Register). Examples of transaction-level requirements that address internal business conduct include:

Certain eligible non-US SDs and MSPs and foreign branches of US SDs and MSPs that enter into transactions with non-US counterparties may qualify for a temporary exemption from transaction-level requirements, and thus may have a later compliance date for these (see Legal Update, CFTC Temporarily Exempts Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants from Many Dodd-Frank Rules).

Entity-level requirements that address internal business conduct for SDs and MSPs (see Practice Note, Cross Border Application of Dodd-Frank Swaps Rules and Legal Update, Final Governance and Risk-management Rules for Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants Adopted by CFTC). These take effect January 1, 2013 for US SDs and MSPs, and over one year from now for non-US SDs and MSPs due to the CFTC's temporary exemption of SDs and MSPs from certain Dodd-Frank swaps rules. Examples of entity-level requirements that address internal business conduct include:

Expressly excluded from these requirements are swap data recordkeeping, SDR reporting and large-trader reporting, which, as noted, are effective as of October 12, 2012.

Position limits for certain physical commodity futures contracts and their economic equivalents that are traded on or subject to the rules of a DCM (see Practice Note, The Dodd-Frank Act: Commodity Position Limits). These take effect October 12, 2012 (60 days after publication of the final definitional rules in the Federal Register).

Rules subjecting uncleared security-based swaps to most of the US securities laws (see Practice Note, Summary of the Dodd-Frank Act: Swaps and Derivatives: Application of Securities Laws to Security-based Swaps). These rules take effect on February 11, 2012 (180 days after publication of the final definitional rules in the Federal Register). Most cleared security-based swaps are permanently exempted from the securities laws.