March brings the first day of spring and the first days of mandatory swap clearing in the United States and Europe. In this derivatiViews, we focus on the imminent deadline in the United States. Next time we will focus on the state of mandatory clearing in Europe in light of last week’s action in the European Parliament.

The first wave of mandatory clearing in the United States comes into effect on March 11, 2013. The CFTC has specified both the categories of entities that must begin clearing, and the types of transactions that must be cleared, commencing on that date.

Swap dealers, major swap participants and active funds must begin clearing several categories of interest rate swaps and four categories of CDX and iTraxx credit default swaps. This timetable has been fixed since last November, when the categories of swaps subject to mandatory clearing were finalized by the CFTC.

Even with the advance notice, we know that many market participants that will be affected by this development, particularly the active funds, face compliance hurdles. In order to assist our member firms, we have prepared a standard form letter that can be sent to active fund customers to alert them to the requirements. Whether you are a potential sender of the letter or a potential recipient, we urge you to take the time to read it.

Keep in mind that some funds may still be determining whether they hit the “active” threshold of 200 trades a month which determines if they must comply with this first-wave clearing mandate. And swap dealers face a challenge in determining which of their customers hit the threshold because that determination is not just a function of their trades with the fund, but all the trades that the fund does with any counterparty.

The ISDA August 2012 DF Protocol and our ISDA Amend process provide a convenient mechanism that funds can use to communicate with their dealer counterparties about whether they are an active fund and, therefore, subject to the clearing mandate on March 11.

Much of the DF Protocol relates to business conduct requirements that come into effect on May 1 (as extended pursuant to a no-action letter at the end of last year). However, for entities that face the March 11 clearing mandate, the deadline is now, for all intents and purposes. As we urged in our December derivatiViews linked above, proper planning for Dodd-Frank requirements is best done as early as possible. Don’t wait until the last minute.

As always, the ISDA staff is available to provide assistance as these deadlines loom. The ISDA website, in particular our Dodd-Frank Documentation Initiative page, is your best first stop to understanding what lies ahead in the United States.

We will march on to clearing in Europe next time.