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Effective Date for FINRA Rule 4210 Margin Amendments Approaches

 

Beginning on December 15, 2017, amendments approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) last year to FINRA Rule 4210[1] will require U.S. registered broker-dealers to collect (but not post) daily variation margin and, in some cases, initial margin, from their customers on specified transactions.[2]

These new margin requirements apply to “Covered Agency Transactions,” which include: (i) “to-be-announced” (or “TBA”) transactions[3] on mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”) and specified pool transactions[4] for which the settlement date is more than one business day after the trade date; and (ii) U.S. agency collateralized mortgage obligations for which the settlement date is more than three business days after the trade date.[5]  TBA transactions account for the vast majority of trading in the sizable agency MBS market.[6] READ MORE