CFTC Staff Letter 14-70: Extension of No-Action Relief for Yieldbroker Pty Limited

U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20581
Telephone: (202) 418-5260
Facsimile: (202) 418-5527
Division of
Market Oversight
CFTC Letter No. 14-70
No-Action
May 14, 2014
Division of Market Oversight
Richard Swift
Chief Executive Officer
Yieldbroker Pty Limited
Level 12, 130 Pitt Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Re: Conditional Time-Limited No-Action Relief with Regard to Section 5h(a)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission Regulation 37.3(a)(1) Dear Mr. Swift:
On December 20, 2013, the Division of Market Oversight (“DMO” or “Division”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“Commission”) issued CFTC No-Action Letter No. 13-76 (“December 2013 Letter”) 1 granting time-limited conditional relief to Yieldbroker Pty Limited (“Yieldbroker”). Pursuant to the December 2013 Letter, DMO would not recommend to the Commission that it commence an enforcement action against Yieldbroker for violation of
section 5h(a)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act (the “Act”) 2
or Commission Regulation
37.3(a)(1), 3 or against any other market participant that uses or has other relationships with Yieldbroker, based on Yieldbroker’s failure to register as a SEF. This no-action relief will expire on the earlier of (1) May 15, 2014, or (2) the date upon which Yieldbroker achieves SEF registration status. In order to ensure that Yieldbroker’s business activities continue not to be unduly disrupted, the Division believes it is appropriate to extend conditional no-action relief to Yieldbroker with regard to Section 5h(a)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission Regulation 37.3(a)(1) until August 15, 2014. Such no-action relief shall remain contingent on Yieldbroker’s satisfaction of the six conditions listed in the December 2013 Letter throughout

1
See CFTC No-Action Letter No. 13-76 (December 20, 2013), available at http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@lrlettergeneral/documents/letter/13-76.pdf. 2 7 U.S.C. 7b-3(a)(1). 3 17 CFR 37.3(a)(1).

2 the time-limited relief period. 4
The Division continues to believe that predicating Yieldbroker’s relief upon satisfaction of these conditions will help foster pre- and post-trade transparency on, and impartial access to, Yieldbroker’s trading platform during the relief period. This letter, and the no-action position taken herein, represents the views of DMO only, and does not necessarily represent the positions or views of the Commission or of any other division or office of the Commission. The no-action positions announced herein do not excuse Yieldbroker from compliance with any other applicable requirements of the Act or the Commission’s regulations thereunder. As with all no-action letters, DMO retains the authority to condition further, modify, suspend, terminate or otherwise restrict the terms of the no-action relief provided herein, in its discretion. If you have any questions concerning this correspondence, please contact David Van Wagner, Chief Counsel, Division of Market Oversight, at (202) 418-5481 or dvanwagner@cftc.gov, or David Pepper, Attorney Advisor, Division of Market Oversight, at (202) 418-5565 or dpepper@cftc.gov. Sincerely, Vincent McGonagle Director, Division of Market Oversight

4 No-action relief for Yieldbroker will continue to be predicated on Yieldbroker’s satisfaction of the following conditions specified in the December 2013 Letter:

1. Yieldbroker will not offer trading on its platform in any product that is subject to the trade execution
   mandate, pursuant to Section 2(h)(8) of the Act, during the relief period.
2. Yieldbroker will only offer trading in Australian dollar-denominated interest rate swaps on its platform
   during the relief period.
3. Yieldbroker will maintain its AML license and will remain an exchange in good standing with ASIC and
   other applicable regulators.
4. Yieldbroker must provide impartial access to its platform consistent with the requirements of
   Commission regulation 37.202(a) and with any Commission- or Commission staff-issued guidance and interpretations thereto.
5. Yieldbroker must at all times maintain an “order book” that complies with Commission regulation
   37.3(a)(3).
6. Yieldbroker must provide notice to its participants that each swap transaction executed on or pursuant to
   the rules of its platform during the period of relief provided herein is not occurring on a registered SEF and that the counterparties to such Off-facility swaps may have swap data reporting obligations pursuant to parts 43 and 45 of the Commission’s regulations. Additionally, Yieldbroker will undertake to monitor that any trade that is reportable under part 45 that is executed on its platform has been assigned a unique swap identifier (“USI”) and has therefore been reported to a provisionally-registered or registered swap data repository (“SDR”).