Topic: Domestic Commerce — Banking
Subject: Finance and financial sector
Date: 2011-08-01 00:00:00

(Sec. 1) Amends the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), to exclude from the meaning of the term "swap," for purposes of clearing and execution requirements, capital and margin requirements, and for purposes of defining a swap dealer or major swap participant, any agreement, contract, or transaction that: (1) would otherwise be included as a "swap"; and (2) is entered into by parties that report information or prepare financial statements on a consolidated basis, or for which a company affiliated with both parties reports information or prepares financial statements on a consolidated basis. Requires that such exempted agreements, contracts, or transactions be reported to either a swap data repository, or, if no such repository would accept them, to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) within the time period prescribed by the CFTC. Retains federal or state regulatory authority to protect the integrity of an insurance fund or guaranty fund. Prohibits the regulator of such a fund, however, from subjecting agreements, contracts, or transactions between affiliated companies to specified clearing, capital and margin requirements, or reporting requirements of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010 (WSTAA) (title VII of Dodd-Frank). States that such transactions, however, are not exempt from regulation under the Federal Reserve Act (FRA) with respect to transactions among banking affiliates. Preserves the safety-and-soundness authorities of the federal banking agencies, other than the authorities set forth in WSTAA. Authorizes the CFTC to prescribe rules that include in the definition of swaps any agreement, contract, or transaction that has been structured to evade CEA requirements applicable to swaps. Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (SEA), as amended by Dodd-Frank, to exclude from the meaning of the term "security-based swap," for purposes of clearing and execution requirements, capital and margin requirements, and for purposes of defining a security-based swap dealer or major security-based swap participant, any agreement, contract, or transaction that: (1) would otherwise be included as a "security-based swap"; and (2) is entered into by parties that report information or prepare financial statements on a consolidated basis, or for which a company affiliated with both parties reports information or prepares financial statements on a consolidated basis. Requires that such exempted agreements, contracts, or transactions be reported to either a security-based swap data repository, or, if no such repository would accept them, to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) within the time period prescribed by the SEC. States that such transactions, however, are not exempt from regulation under the FRA with respect to transactions among banking affiliates. Retains federal or state regulatory authority to protect the integrity of an insurance fund or guaranty fund. Prohibits the regulator of such a fund, however, from subjecting security-based swap transactions between affiliated companies to specified clearing and execution requirements, capital and margin requirements, or reporting requirements of the WSTAA. Preserves the safety-and-soundness authorities of the federal banking agencies or state insurance regulators to impose capital requirements with regard to security-based swaps, other than the authorities set forth in WSTAA. Authorizes the SEC to prescribe rules that include in the definition of security-based swaps any agreement, contract, or transaction that has been structured to evade SEA requirements applicable to security-based swaps. (Sec. 2) Requires that the amendments to CEA made by this Act be implemented: (1) without regard to federal information policy requirements or the notice and comment requirements of federal administrative procedure; and (2) through promulgation of an interim final rule, pursuant to which public comment will be sought before a final rule is issued. Limits the disregard of such federal information policy and notice and comment requirements solely to changes to rules and regulations, or proposed rule and regulations, that are limited to, and directly a consequence of, the amendments to CEA made by this Act.