The CFTC has again delayed the final backstop compliance date for Dodd-Frank swap data reporting by non-financial commercial end users under Parts 43 (real-time reporting), 45 ("SDR" reporting) and 46 (historical swap data reporting) of the CFTC's Regulations, which were scheduled to take effect on April 10, 2013. The CFTC has provided swap counterparties that are not SDs or MSPs until:

For purposes of this no-action relief, "financial counterparties" are swap counterparties that are "financial entities" as defined in Section 2(h)(7)(C) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). For both Part 45 and 46, the CFTC clarified that reporting responsibility for a swap transaction between a non-financial swap counterparty and a financial swap counterparty is allocated to the financial swap counterparty.

April 10 was the backstop default date by which data for all swaps not already being reported was to begin. Swap data reporting has already begun for swaps involving registered swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs), which include the majority of swaps, on:

In order to take advantage of this relief from Part 43 and 45 reporting obligations:

The only swaps for which data reporting has not yet begun are swaps between two entities that have not yet registered as SDs or MSPs or which are commercial end users of swaps, including certain funds, and energy and utility companies.

The CFTC appears convinced that end users are not yet prepared to begin swap data reporting and in many cases have not implemented the technological infrastructure necessary to effectively comply with the data reporting rules. Market participants have also failed in many cases to obtain a CICI (entity identifier), which is required under the reporting and which therefore also had an April 10 de facto deadline. For more information on CICIs, see Legal Update, CFTC Advisory: Deadline for CICIs and Swap Data Reporting Approaches.

The no-action letter specifies that the relief does not extend to any other types of entities with reporting obligations under the swap data reporting rules. Entities that have registered as SDs or MSPs are required to be in full compliance with reporting obligations by their registration date. Additionally, the CFTC did not extend this no-action relief to obligations of non-SD/MSP financial swap counterparties under Parts 43 and 45 for interest rate and credit swaps and the April 10, 2013 deadline still applied for those swap data reporting obligations.

Additionally, recordkeeping obligations for swaps entered into by non-SD/MSP counterparties prior to April 10, 2013 are not affected and records must be maintained according to Part 46 of the CFTC's regulations.

For details on Dodd-Frank swap data reporting rules, see Practice Notes, The Dodd-Frank Act: Practical Guide to Over-the-Counter (OTC) Swap Data Reporting, US Derivatives Regulation: CFTC Swap Data Reporting and Recordkeeping Rules and The Dodd-Frank Act: CFTC Swap Data Reporting Required Data Fields Checklist.

For more information on other important Dodd-Frank swap dates, see Dodd-Frank Swaps Calendar.

For more information on end users under Dodd-Frank, see Practice Note, The Commercial End-user Exception to the Dodd-Frank Mandatory Swap Clearing Requirement.