Under current CFTC rules, market participants who exceed $8 billion in gross notional swap dealing activity over a twelve-month period are required to register with the CFTC as swap dealers during the phase-in period currently in effect. This phase-in period is scheduled to end, and the threshold will fall, to $3 billion in December 2017.

In a recent speech, CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad said “Today, I am announcing that I will recommend to my fellow commissioners a one-year extension of the date on which the swap dealer de minimis threshold is scheduled to drop. This will be proposed through a Commission order. Adopting this order will give us more time to consider this critical issue. Given its importance, a delay is the sensible and responsible thing to do – and doing it now will provide much-needed certainty to market participants.”

In 2015, CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo said “the CFTC botched the policy analysis in 2012 when it implemented its current swap dealer registration de minimis rules.”