The SEC has published Amendment No. 1 and there will be a 15-day comment period. The comment period begins once this is published in the Federal Register.

To read the full Notice of Filing of Amendment No. 1 and Order Instituting Proceedings to Determine Whether to Approve or Disapprove a Proposed Rule Change, as Modified by Amendment No. 1, to Amend the Margin Requirements for Covered Agency Transactions under FINRA Rule 4210 (Margin Requirements) click here.

A description of the Proposed Rule Change, as Modified by Amendment No. 1 would:

Eliminate the two percent maintenance margin requirement that applies to non-exempt accounts under FINRA Rule 4210.
Subject to specified conditions and limitations, permit FINRA members to take a capital charge in lieu of collecting margin for excess net mark to market losses on Covered Agency
Transactions; and
Make revisions designed to streamline, consolidate and clarify the Covered Agency Transaction rule language.

Amendment No. 1 would make the following changes to the Proposed Rule Change:

Modify the definition of “non-margin counterparty” to exclude small cash counterparties and other exempted counterparties.
Define a FINRA member’s “specified net capital
deductions” as the net capital deductions required by paragraph (e)(2)(H)(ii)d.1. of FINRA Rule 4210 with respect to all unmargined excess net mark to market losses of its counterparties, except to the extent that the member, in good faith, expects such excess net mark to market
losses to be margined by the close of business on the fifth business day after they arose.

According to the publication:

If the Commission approves the Proposed Rule Change,
as modified by Amendment No. 1, FINRA will announce the effective date of the Proposed Rule Change, as modified by Amendment No. 1, in a Regulatory Notice to be published no later than 60 days following Commission approval. The effective date would be between nine and ten
months following the Commission’s approval.

Comments Due: 15 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Rebuttal Comments Due: 21 days after publication in the Federal Register.

This means that the clock is ticking to get your plan in place to comply to FINRA Rule 4210. At Matrix Applications, we can help you prepare with MarginCalculator.

About MarginCalculator

MarginCalculator is a web-based margin workflow platform designed to solve the problem of margining forward-settling trades like TBAs, specified pools, ARMs and CMOs. With it, you’ll be able to compute your margin, control your risk, and comply with Rule 4210.

MarginCalculator’s workspace identifies counterparty exposure and outstanding margin. It also allows you to email margin notices with a single click.

You can customize your counterparties based on your MSFTA agreements and automatically upload your trades. Securities are priced through our partners at ICE Data Services and are created automatically using eMBS.

MarginCalculator even provides easy access to over 25 reports in PDF or Excel format.