Although primarily a transportation bill, the FAST Act contains other provisions, including provisions simplifying securities laws and another provision fixing the Dodd-Frank Act.  As describe by CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo “The Dodd-Frank Act created the vehicle of swap data repositories to compile data on global swaps transactions providing international regulators with essential information necessary in the event of a future crisis. Yet, a major flaw in Dodd-Frank imposed indemnification obligations on overseas regulators in order to share this critical information, which has been preventing international data sharing for swaps transactions. As a result, seven years after the financial crisis, regulators still do not have full transparency into global counterparty credit exposure that Dodd-Frank was designed to provide.”

Section 86001 of the FAST Act addresses this by eliminating the indemnification requirement and replacing it with a requirement that a written agreement be obtained which requires compliance with certain statutory confidentiality obligations.

ABOUT STINSON LEONARD STREET

Stinson Leonard Street LLP provides sophisticated transactional and litigation legal services to clients ranging from individuals and privately held enterprises to national and international public companies. As one of the 100 largest firms in the U.S., Stinson Leonard Street has offices in 14 cities, including Minneapolis, Mankato and St. Cloud, Minn.; Kansas City, St. Louis and Jefferson City, Mo.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Denver, Colo.; Washington, D.C.; Decatur, Ill.; Wichita and Overland Park, Kan.; Omaha, Neb.; and Bismarck, N.D.

The views expressed herein are the views of the blogger and not those of Stinson Leonard Street or any client.