FIA has responded to the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation’s proposals to revise its customer clearing access models and to modify its margin segregation rules in order to implement the SEC’s new clearing mandate for U.S. Treasuries.
FIA’s letter identifies conflicts between the proposed access structures and CFTC rules to which FCMs are subject. The letter urges the FICC to preserve provisions in its existing rules that relieve FCMs from having to clear transactions through FICC until relief can be obtained by the CFTC for the proposed models.
FIA also asks the FICC to consider developing an alternative access model analogous to its proposed Agent Clearing Service that would leverage FCMs’ existing touchpoint with FICC by allowing them to clear directly through their FICC-member affiliated broker-dealers in CFTC-compliant account structures.
Read the letter in full.
