Department of the Treasury July 1, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is publishing the names of one or more persons that have been placed on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List based on OFAC's determination that one or more applicable legal criteria were satisfied. All property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction of these persons are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.

The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and FHFA (each, an agency, and collectively, the agencies) are adopting a final rule that amends the agencies' regulations requiring swap dealers and security-based swap dealers under the agencies' respective jurisdictions to exchange margin with their counterparties for swaps that are not centrally cleared (Swap Margin Rule). The Swap Margin Rule as adopted in 2015 takes effect under a phased compliance schedule spanning from 2016 through 2020, and the entities covered by the rule continue to hold swaps in their portfolios that were entered into before the effective dates of the rule. Such swaps are grandfathered from the Swap Margin Rule's requirements until they expire according to their terms. The final rule permits swaps entered into prior to an applicable compliance date (legacy swaps) to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended to replace an interbank offered rate (IBOR) or other discontinued rate, modifies initial margin requirements for non-cleared swaps between affiliates, introduces an additional compliance date for initial margin requirements, clarifies the point in time at which trading documentation must be in place, permits legacy swaps to retain their legacy status in the event that they are amended due to technical amendments, notional reductions, or portfolio compression exercises, and makes technical changes to relocate the provision addressing amendments to legacy swaps that are made to comply with the Qualified Financial Contract Rules, as defined in the Supplementary Information section. In addition, the final rule addresses comments received in response to the agencies' publication of the interim final rule that would preserve the status of legacy swaps meeting certain criteria if the United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union (hereafter ``Brexit) without a negotiated settlement agreement.

This interim final rule amends the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations to implement the rules of origin provisions for preferential tariff treatment of the Agreement Between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA). This document sets forth the framework for our regulations that provides further guidance regarding the rules of origin for those seeking USMCA preferential tariff treatment and includes the text of the Uniform Regulations regarding rules of origin, as trilaterally agreed upon by the United States, the United Mexican States (Mexico), and Canada. Because the USMCA supersedes the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) when the USMCA enters into force on July 1, 2020, this document also amends the NAFTA regulations to reflect that the NAFTA provisions do not apply to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after July 1, 2020.