The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury ("OCC"), Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("Board"), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"), Farm Credit Administration ("FCS"), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA" and collectively with the OCC, Board, FDIC, and FCS, the "Agencies") have adopted final rules on the Margin and Capital Requirements for Covered Swap Entities (the "Final Rule").
The Final Rule adopts exemptions from the initial and variation margin requirements published by the Agencies in November 2015 pursuant to sections 731 and 764 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The Final Rule generally exempts the following institutions and transactions from the initial and variation margin requirements for non-cleared swaps:
(a) non-financial end users that are using a swap to hedge or mitigate commercial risk
(b) small banks, savings associations, Farm Credit System institutions, and credit unions with total assets of $10 billion orless that are using a swap to hedge or mitigate commercial risk, and
(c) captive finance companies that are using a swap to hedge or mitigate commercial risk.
A link to the relevant page of the Federal Register may be found here: https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2016/08/02/2016-18193/margin-and-capital-requirements-for-covered-swap-entities.
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