Topics in this issue include:

      Critical System Updates

·         NEW: Advisory for IRS Margin Model Parameter Change in Production

      Deliveries

·         CME Group Delivery Dates for August 2014

·         NEW: Mandatory CLS Test

·         2014 Approved List of Live Cattle Stockyards & Slaughter Plants

      Events & Announcements

·         OTC Holiday Advisory- Labor Day

·         NEW: August 2014 Eligible ETFs and Stocks

·         NEW: Product Modification Summary- Gasoil Crack Spreads and Financial Futures

·         NEW: Delist Texas Gas SL

·         NEW: Delist Australian Coking Coal (Platts) Futures and Australian Coking Coal (Argus) Low Vol Futures

·         Copper Options: Remove Contrary Instructions

·         UPDATED Additional Client Master Data for Margin Accounts

·         CME Clearing US Delegated Reporting Service Update – EMIR Collateral & Valuation Requirement August 11, 2014

·         Contact Information

Deliveries

CME Group Delivery Dates for August 2014

Listed here are the relevant delivery dates for the August 2014 Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc., Chicago Board of Trade, NYMEX, COMEX, and DME contracts.

NEW: Mandatory CLS Test

In June, CME Clearing required all open positions post expiration in the CAD/USD (CD) and micro CAD/USD (MCD) futures contract to be delivered through the paired delivery process. Beginning with the September 2014 FX delivery cycle, all CLS eligible currency pairs will migrate to the paired delivery process. The paired delivery process is an assignment based process between clearing firms. Clearing firms with open long and short positions at the end of trading on last trade date will be matched against one another. The assigned clearing members will then facilitate the delivery utilizing the commitment information entered in Deliveries Plus. Similar to other assignment based processes in other futures products, clearing firms will be provided with buy/sell notification and invoice report detailing the assignment.  In addition, clearing firms will be provided with a CSV instruction file in the clearing firm’s FTP folder that can be used for automating the CLS payment instruction creation process.

In preparation of the September 2014 FX Delivery cycle, a mandatory test cycle is required for all clearing members that intend to complete delivery via CLS. The test cycle will commence on Monday, August 25,^, 2014 for settlement on Wednesday, August 27, 2014. Upon completion of the test, clearing firms are required to report to CME Clearing the results of the test cycle. As part of the test cycle, a CSV file will be circulated to clearing members required to participate in the test with instruction and counterparty information. Clearing members that fail to match within CLS against any assigned counter party will not be allowed to participate in the CLS delivery method in the September delivery cycle. 

If any CLS participant settlement instructions have been revised or altered in anyway, please send details to Deliveries at Clearinghousedelivteam@cmegroup.com by Thursday, August 14, 2014.

If there are any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Deliveries at 312.930.3172.

2014 Approved List of Live Cattle Stockyards & Slaughter Plants

The attached Stockyards and Slaughter Plants have been approved for deliveries against the CME Group Live Cattle futures contract from February 1, 2014 through January 31, 2015. Delivery point information and contact numbers are listed for your reference.

See the full advisory.

If there are any questions, please contact the Deliveries Unit at (312) 930-3172.

OTC Holiday Advisory- Labor Day

On Monday, September 1, 2014 (Labor Day), CME Clearing will be open to clear trades. Due to the holiday, however, there will be several impacts to CME Clearing’s processing and trade submission timelines for OTC products. For details on these impacts, please see the tables at this link.

NEW: August 2014 Eligible ETFs and Stocks

CME Clearing accepts a select number of shares of ETFs and stocks for customer and house segregated performance bond collateral for Base Guaranty Fund products. CME Clearing now accepts ETFs under its own asset type, ETF, in the C21 system. Both ETFs and stocks are category 4 assets and are capped in total at $1 billion per clearing member firm. Please refer to the Standard Acceptable Collateral and Resources website for further details regarding acceptable collateral, haircuts, and limits.

For ETF and stock acceptance criteria and a list of eligible ETFs and stocks, please see Standard Acceptable Collateral and Resources website. CME Clearing utilizes a tiering methodology based on average daily volume to determine the number of eligible shares per clearing member firm. 

CME Clearing utilizes the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) as the custodian for the ETF and Stock Programs.  In order to participate in the programs, clearing members must have an account at DTCC. For those firms familiar with the DTCC system, the CME’s account has “Repo” status.

Clearing members with an account at DTCC can originate free pledges of securities to the CME account or request the release of pledged securities from the account at the CME. CME staff has direct access to DTCC’s system to view clearing member pledges and approve release requests. Release transactions are not finalized until CME has approved the transactions. Clearing members have the opportunity to pledge securities in the morning to facilitate the release of a.m. cash calls at the intra-day performance bond cycle, or to request the release of pledged securities. The deadline for morning transactions is 10:30 a.m. CST. Clearing members have an additional opportunity to pledge securities in anticipation of increases in their overnight performance bond requirements until approximately 1:30 p.m. CST.

If you need further information about the ETF and Stock Programs, please contact the Financial Unit at (312) 207-2594 or the Risk Management Group at (312) 648-3888.

NEW: Product Modification Summary- Gasoil Crack Spreads and Financial Futures

Effective Sunday, August 24, 2014 for trade date Monday, August 25, and pending all relevant CFTC regulatory review periods, please be advised that the New York Mercantile Exchange (EXCHANGE) will amend the Floating Price definition and expand the listing of contract months for the products listed below on CME Globex, Open Outcry and available for submission for clearing on CME ClearPort. For the full list of changes please click here.

NEW: Delist Texas Gas SL

Effective Monday, August 11, 2014, the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (Exchange) delisted the following product from CME Globex, CME ClearPort and the NYMEX trading floor.

There is currently no open interest in this product.

NEW: Delist Australian Coking Coal (Platts) Futures and Australian Coking Coal (Argus) Low Vol Futures

Effective Monday, August 11, 2014, the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (Exchange) delisted the following product from CME ClearPort and Open Outcry.

There is currently no open interest in these products.

Copper Options: Remove Contrary Instructions

Effective Sunday, August 17, 2014 for trade date Monday, August 18, 2014, and pending all relevant CFTC regulatory review periods, please be advised that the Commodity Exchange, Inc.( EXCHANGE) will remove contrary instructions for Copper Options (Clearing code: HX; Globex code HXE) beginning with the January 2015 contract. 

Currently, Copper Options expire at 1:00 p.m. (New York prevailing time). Upon expiration, long positions have until 4:30 p.m. (New York prevailing time) to issue “contrary instructions”, i.e abandoning in-the-money or exercising out-of-the-money options.

Beginning with the January 2015 expiration, only in-the-money options will be exercised as determined by the underlying futures settlement price for that day. All other options will be abandoned.

UPDATED Additional Client Master Data for Margin Accounts

This advisory updates and replaces Clearing Advisory 14-087, originally published on March 3, 2014.

UPDATE #1: July 23, 2014 (ORIGINAL DATE March 27, 2014)

Some clearing firms have indicated that they may not be able to meet the October 6 deadline for submission of the additional client master data. If so, please contact MarginAccts@cmegroup.com to request an extension.

For the full text of this advisory, please click here

CME Clearing US Delegated Reporting Service Update – EMIR Collateral & Valuation Requirement August 11, 2014

Under EMIR reporting mandates from August 11, 2014, EU Financial Counterparties (FC) and Non-Financial Counterparties above the clearing threshold (NFC+) must report daily collateral and valuation data relating to their open trades and positions to an EMIR Trade Repository. 

For the full text of this advisory, please click here.

Contact Information