SEC Commissioner Says No Plans to Extend Treasury Clearing Deadlines

SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda warned that the SEC does not currently intend to extend the compliance deadlines for its Treasury Clearing Rule (December 31, 2026 for cash transactions and June 30, 2027 for repo), urging market participants to maintain implementation momentum in remarks at the 2026 U.S. Treasury Market Conference (see prior coverage).

Mr. Uyeda said two exemptive relief requests on the rule's cross-border application raise significant outstanding questions about its scope. The Institute of International Bankers has requested relief for trades executed entirely outside the United States between non-U.S. parties, while the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA") has sought an expanded inter-affiliate exception and an activity-based threshold for non-U.S. affiliate transactions.

Because resolving one request affects the other, the SEC reopened the comment periods for both to solicit input on a harmonized framework. Mr. Uyeda suggested a firm-specific cap on non-cleared, non-U.S. repo activity as one path forward, and he invited market participants to comment on whether a market-wide threshold based on average daily repo volume would also be useful.

Mr. Uyeda also outlined recent SEC actions to facilitate clearing access, including the registration of CME Securities Clearing, Inc. and ICE Clear Credit LLC as new clearing agencies. He noted that the SEC is currently considering a separate SIFMA request that would permit broker-dealers to include a debit in their reserve calculations under Exchange Act Rule 15c3-3 ("Customer protection-reserves and custody of securities") for margin posted at a clearing agency for customer positions in cleared Treasury securities, where that margin is calculated on a net or omnibus basis rather than customer by customer.