CFTC to clear up confusion over swap dealer registration

(Reuters) - The U.S. futures regulator plans to clear up confusion over the timing of new derivatives rules by telling banks they will have until January 1 to register as swap dealers.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's move to clarify when banks must register could help ease industry frustration about when the rules will kick in and offer banks a bit more time to comply.

The confusion stems from new rules calling for banks that have $8 billion or more in annual swap dealing activity to register with regulators as swaps dealers.

Under these rules, firms will have 60 days to register starting from the end of the month in which they hit the $8 billion transactions threshold, CFTC spokesman Steve Adamske said on Wednesday.

The registration rule and others, such as a definition of swaps, take effect on October 12, so banks that hit the threshold by the end of October will be the first required to register, Adamske said.

That means the earliest registration deadline for any bank would be January 1, he said. Banks that hit the threshold later would have longer to register.

Adamske said the agency plans to put out guidance that will clarify that timing.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law gave the CFTC the task of drafting new rules to boost oversight of the $650 trillion global over-the-counter swaps market.

The regulator has faced some criticism for its handling of the rules.

A group of Asian market regulators wrote to the CFTC last month asking them to review proposed derivatives rules and to work with foreign regulators before finalizing guidance on how the rules would be applied to non-U.S. banks that trade with U.S. counterparties.

(Reporting by Emily Stephenson; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Tim Dobbyn)