Commodity Futures Trading Commission staff grants no-action relief for Railbird and Bitnomial swap reporting and recordkeeping and removes third-party clearing restriction

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk issued a supplemental no-action letter on swap data reporting and recordkeeping requirements. Staff said they will not recommend that the Commission bring an enforcement action against Railbird Exchange, LLC, Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, or their participants for failure to comply with certain swap-related recordkeeping requirements and for failure to report to swap data repositories data linked to fully collateralized event contract transactions executed on or subject to Railbird’s rules and cleared through Bitnomial. The supplemental letter also removes a condition in CFTC Letter No. 25-26 that had barred Railbird participants from clearing contracts through a third-party clearing member. The change responds to a request from Railbird and Bitnomial to modify the earlier letter so it would cover transactions cleared through Bitnomial and eliminate the restriction on third-party clearing. The no-action position remains subject to the terms of the new no-action letter.