pc
nid 91963
Apr 15, 2026
ggallwey@vixio.com
US Track 3
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
financial services
129% of draft length
draft in Generated
Generated
1832 charsUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission Approves Customer Cross-Margining in Treasury Market
On April 15, 2026, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a conditional exemptive order permitting customer cross-margining of cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered clearing agency with futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization.
The exemptive order permits broker-dealers that are dually registered as futures commission merchants with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and are joint clearing members of both the clearing agency and derivatives clearing organization to offer cross-margining to certain customers in futures accounts. The SEC simultaneously approved a proposed rule change filed by the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) to enter into a Third Amended and Restated Cross-Margining Agreement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME). This agreement extends cross-margining availability to positions cleared and carried for customers by dually registered broker-dealers and futures commission merchants that are common members of both FICC and CME.
Prior to this approval, only clearing members could cross-margin futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared at CME with cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared at FICC. The expansion to customers represents a significant development in Treasury market infrastructure. SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda noted that the orders advance efforts to unlock additional liquidity and ensure the resilience of the U.S. Treasury securities market.
The exemptive order and rule change approval are available on SEC.gov and will be published in the Federal Register. A related CFTC exemptive order will be published on CFTC.gov and in the Federal Register.
REFERENCES:
https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2026-36
Agent draft
Not run yet.
Published
2359 charsUnited States Securities and Exchange Commission Approves Measures for Customer Cross-Margining in Treasury Market
On April 15, 2026, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a conditional exemptive order permitting customer cross-margining of cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered clearing agency with futures positions cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization.
The exemptive order provides relief from the broker-dealer customer protection rule (Rule 15c3-3) to allow broker-dealers that are dually registered as futures commission merchants (BD-FCMs) and are joint clearing members of both clearing organizations to offer cross-margining to eligible customers within a futures account, subject to specified conditions.
In parallel, the SEC approved a proposed rule change filed by the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) to adopt a Third Amended and Restated Cross-Margining Agreement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), incorporating the arrangement into its Government Securities Division rules.
The revised agreement extends cross-margining eligibility to customer positions carried by dually registered BD-FCMs that are common members of both FICC and CME. Prior to this approval, cross-margining was limited to proprietary positions of clearing members and certain affiliates.
Under the new framework, participating firms may recognise risk offsets between Treasury securities and related futures positions when calculating initial margin requirements, subject to customer-level margining, account segregation, and documentation requirements. These include the use of dedicated customer cross-margining accounts and the execution of customer agreements incorporating subordination provisions governing the treatment of margin in insolvency scenarios.
While the measures facilitate greater margin efficiency and may reduce costs associated with centrally cleared Treasury transactions, they also modify the treatment of customer assets by permitting such assets to be held in futures accounts and subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) protections rather than traditional securities customer protection regimes.
Taken together, the exemptive order and rule approval form part of broader regulatory efforts to enhance central clearing and resilience in the U.S. Treasury market, including by incentivizing greater participation through improved capital efficiency.