Washington (Platts)--18Dec2012/314 pm EST/2014 GMT

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight on Tuesday issued temporary no-action relief to traders on Natural Gas Exchange, stating that swaps trades transacted on the Canadian exchange would not count toward the calculation of a swap trader's de minimis exemption.

The de minimis exemption affects companies that transact less than $8 billion worth of swaps, exempting them from CFTC's swap dealer definition.

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NGX in February applied to to the CFTC to register as a foreign board of trade, and this application is still under review, the agency said. In the meantime, NGX is continuing to operate as an exempt commercial market.

While its FBOT application is still under review, "the division will not recommend that the commission take an enforcement action against any person for failure to include a swap executed on NGX prior to the earlier of March 31, 2013, or the granting or denial of NGX's registration as an FBOT, in its calculation of the aggregate notional value of swaps connected with its swap dealing activity," the letter states.

--Jessica Marron, jessica_marron@platts.com
\--Edited by Robert DiNardo, robert_dinardo@platts.com

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