Dodd Frank: What you need to know from a contracts perspective

Phil chairs the IECA’s Dodd-Frank Working Group and will discuss the issues that must be addressed in physical commodity contracts and financial derivatives contracts in order to comply with Dodd-Frank Act requirements of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The discussion will include: (i) the end-user exception to clearing for hedging swap transactions versus speculative swap transactions; (ii) forward contracts versus swaps and the impacts of embedded volumetric optionality; (iii) commodity options and trade options; (iv) swap reporting (reportable events and reporting counterparty); (v) swap recordkeeping and documentation requirements; (vi) margin and bilateral credit support; (vii) position limits and bona fide hedges; (viii) portfolio reconciliation and valuation disputes; (ix) risk management policies and procedures; (xi) addressing CFTC interpretive guidance and non-binding staff no-action letters; (xi) a brief update on the latest regulatory developments from the CFTC and how to manage updates to your contracts to ensure compliance with changing regulatory requirements; and (xii) writing contracts and records that anticipate regulatory compliance enforcement investigations (i.e., can trying to do the impossible ever be worthwhile?)