Securities Regulation Daily Wrap Up, CLEARANCE AND SETTLEMENT—Uyeda updates Treasury Market Conference attendees on treasury clearing rule implementation, (Nov 13, 2025)

By Rebecca E. Hoffman, J.D.

The SEC extended the compliance deadlines and provided guidance, but more discussion and clarity are required, the commissioner said.

Planning for the implementation of the SEC’s Treasury clearing rules, adopted Dec. 13, 2023, has exposed ambiguities and complexities. During remarks at the 2025 U.S. Treasury Market Conference Nov. 12 at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Commissioner Mark Uyeda outlined the work that is needed to ensure readiness for compliance.

“Our objective,” Uyeda said, “is to effectively implement the Treasury Clearing Rules in a manner that removes regulatory ambiguities, addresses unanticipated issues, and resolves unnecessary frictions while maintaining the smooth functioning and operation of the Treasury market.”

Central clearance. The new rules require more Treasury security secondary transactions to be centrally cleared. These include repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements, except where the counterparty is a state or local government or another clearing organization. Also included are transactions between a clearing agency member and a registered broker-dealer or government securities broker. There is also an exception for transactions where one counterparty is a central bank, a sovereign entity, an international financial institution, or a natural person.

Central counterparties must meet rigorous standards, Uyeda explained. As such, they must submit to review any time they change their rules. Systemically Important Financial Market Utilities, or SIFMUs, that the SEC supervises must be examined once a year pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act. “[T]hese exams promote proactive compliance by ensuring SIFMUs are identifying, managing, and monitoring the financial and operational risks associated with the products and markets they serve,” he reasoned.

Deadlines pushed. Affected firms have invested significant effort to ensure they are ready to comply when the rules take effect, but along the way it has become clear that the original deadlines were not workable. In February, they were extended; the new deadline for cash transactions is Dec. 31, 2026, with an additional six months for repurchase agreements. Throughout this period, the SEC has been connecting with market participants and addressing their issues by providing guidance and feedback.

The rules also exempt inter-affiliate transactions, but it may be necessary to increase the scope of the exemption in order to fulfill its purpose. “Related areas under consideration are how the exemption could address transactions for internal liquidity and collateral management and how the concept of affiliate, within the inter-affiliate exemption, might be broadened,” Uyeda explained. Also, among the outstanding issues, is how to bring transactions with foreign firms into compliance. Progress on this issue, as well as consideration of applications from clearing agencies CME Securities Clearing Inc. and ICE Clear Credit LLC to register as U.S. Treasury clearing entities, stalled during the government shutdown but should soon resume, Uyeda hopes.

The SEC will continue its efforts, working closely with other federal financial regulators, toward smoothing out the wrinkles in the new rules. A dedicated page for Treasury Clearing Implementation contains everything relevant to this venture, Uyeda noted. “We have broad consensus on our end goal: a U.S. Treasury market that remains deep, liquid, transparent, and resilient,” he concluded. “While we collaborate to solve challenges along the way, we must keep that objective in sight.”

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