American Bankers Association
The Clearing House
Financial Services Forum
Financial Services Roundtable
Futures Industry Association
Institute of International Bankers
International Swaps and Derivatives Association
Investment Company Institute/ICI Global
Managed Funds Association
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

July 16, 2012

Mr. David A. Stawick
Secretary
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581

Re: Request for Comment Deadline Extension on the Cross-Border Proposed Interpretive Guidance (RIN 3038-AD57) and Proposed Exemptive Order (RIN 3038-AD85)

The undersigned associations1 respectfully request that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission”) extend the deadline for comments on two releases published in the Federal Register on July 12, 2012 regarding the cross-border application of the Dodd-Frank Act’s swap regulation and related CFTC rules: the proposed interpretive guidance as to the cross-border impact of Title VII (the “proposed guidance”) and the proposed exemptive order that would provide market participants temporary exemptions from Title VII requirements subject to certain conditions (the “proposed exemptive order”). Comments on the proposed guidance and the proposed exemptive order are due on August 27 and August 13, respectively.

The proposed guidance and the proposed exemptive order will have a significant impact on how the global derivatives markets will be regulated and will have broad repercussions on how our members conduct their swaps business. Our members are actively discussing the two releases and are working together to provide thoughtful and constructive comments to the Commission.

Because the terms of the exemptive order and the proposed guidance are integrally linked, persons who wish to provide substantive comments effectively will be required to do so by the earlier August 13 comment period deadline associated with the proposed exemptive order. We respectfully request that the Commission extend the comment period for both the proposed guidance and the proposed exemptive order to September 10, which is 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The proposed guidance and exemptive order will have implications for a substantial number of other rules and it will take time for interested parties to analyze the various rule interrelationships and dependencies to provide comments that are as informed and wellconsidered as possible. Moreover, these proposals will likely attract substantial interest from constituencies outside the United States who should be afforded the opportunity to
develop their comments in a thorough manner. Most of the Commission’s other significant Dodd-Frank rule proposals have had 60 day comment periods (including the proposals relating to product definitions, entity definitions, the Volcker rule, external business conduct standards, and internal business conduct standards). Given the complexity and importance of these proposals, we believe that the Commission should afford no less an opportunity to provide comments.

Finally, the proposed guidance contains fundamental information concerning which entities will need to register as swap dealers or major swap participants under Title VII. We thus urge the Commission to delay the compliance date for registration as a swap dealer or major swap participant until a period of time after the Commission publishes its final cross-border interpretative guidance and exemptive order.

Sincerely,

American Bankers Association
The Clearing House
Financial Services Forum
Financial Services Roundtable
Futures Industry Association
Institute of International Bankers
International Swaps and Derivatives Association
Investment Company Institute/ICI Global
Managed Funds Association
Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association