Q&A: CFTC’s Quintenz weighs swap dealer threshold impact

Activity-based threshold could be ‘disincentivising’ dealers, says commissioner

Market participants may be depressing swaps activity to avoid breaching the $8 billion notional activity-based threshold so they don’t have to register as a swap dealer, says Brian Quintenz, new commissioner at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Those firms find that the onerous costs and reporting requirements that come with swap dealer registration outweigh the benefits of dealing activity, according to Quintenz, who says the CFTC must consider ways to encourage market participation