The Securities and Exchange Commission has intensified its efforts to assist broker-dealers and other market participants in their journey toward central clearing of U.S. Treasury securities. To facilitate this transition, the agency has launched a comprehensive webpage, establishing a central hub for the latest status updates, staff statements, and all other pertinent materials.
The SEC, which adopted these significant rule changes in December 2023, subsequently extended the original compliance dates. This decision was made to allow additional time for further engagement on compliance, operational, and interpretive questions, thereby ensuring an orderly implementation of the new rules. The Commission reaffirmed its ongoing readiness to collaborate with market participants on these critical aspects.
Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda, entrusted by Chairman Paul S. Atkins to spearhead the agency’s initiative facilitating the transition to clearing U.S. Treasury securities, recently issued an update. His statement underscored the SEC’s unwavering focus on executing the implementation correctly. "Changes to the U.S. Treasury market must be done carefully and deliberatively to avoid disruption," the statement emphasized, highlighting that Commission staff, in close collaboration with colleagues at other federal financial regulators and a wide array of market participants, have been diligently working towards implementing the Treasury Clearing rule.
The dedicated SEC webpage for U.S. Treasury clearing implementation is designed to offer market participants streamlined access to relevant SEC staff statements, including answers to frequently asked questions, and other related resources. This initiative aims to enhance clarity, transparency, and efficiency throughout the transition process. In a related action, the Division of Trading and Markets today released answers to Frequently Asked Questions regarding the applicability of the Treasury Clearing rule to certain general collateral triparty repos, which are also referred to as mixed CUSIP triparty repos.
Further resources accessible from this new webpage include applications filed by entities seeking registration as clearing agencies to provide central counterparty services for the U.S. Treasury market. It also features proposed rule changes submitted by self-regulatory organizations pertaining to the U.S. Treasury clearing rules. Market participants preparing for compliance during this implementation period are encouraged to direct their questions to SEC staff in the Division of Trading and Markets via email at tradingandmarkets@sec.gov or by calling 202-551-5777.