The CFTC's Market Participants Division and Division of Market Oversight have extended the temporary no-action positions that keep UK-US derivatives trading and clearing arrangements running without disruption, according to a release dated October 1, 2026 (Release Number 9306-26). The extension is documented in CFTC Staff Letter No. 26-28.

For desks with cross-border flow, the practical effect is straightforward: the regulatory footing underpinning UK-US derivatives activity remains unchanged for now. What the letter does not do is convert that footing into something permanent. The relief remains a staff position, not a comparability determination, and the CFTC frames the extension explicitly as a bridge while it analyzes UK law.

What was extended

The October 1 letter extends positions previously announced in CFTC Staff Letter No. 24-11, as amended by CFTC Staff Letter No. 26-10. This is at least the second amendment cycle since the original relief took shape. The sequence matters for compliance calendars: firms that built workflows around the earlier letters should check Letter 26-28 for the new expiration terms, since each extension has carried its own horizon.

The CFTC did not announce UK comparability determinations or exemptive orders alongside the extension. That omission is the substance of the story. The staff states that MPD and DMO "continue to believe maintaining these no action positions is proper while the CFTC works with the relevant UK authorities to analyze relevant UK law and, where appropriate, issue UK comparability determinations and exemptive orders for certain UK entities."

Two things are separated in that sentence. Maintaining the relief is a staff judgment, stated as current policy. Issuing determinations and orders is conditioned on analysis and remains contingent — "where appropriate." Nothing in the release commits the Commission to a timeline for that work, more than six years after the UK formally left the EU.

The 2019 foundation

The positions trace back to February 25, 2019, when the CFTC issued a joint statement with the Bank of England — including the Prudential Regulation Authority — and the Financial Conduct Authority. That statement, referenced as CFTC Press Release No. 7876-19, was designed to provide regulatory certainty on the continuity of derivatives trading and clearing between the UK and the United States in the run-up to Brexit.

At the time, the CFTC had already issued comparability determinations and exemptive orders for certain EU entities under its cross-border framework. The 2019 statement, and the no-action positions that followed it, functioned to preserve equivalent treatment for UK entities once they fell outside EU legal structures. Today's extension keeps that preservation in place.

For clearing members, FCMs and buy-side firms routing through UK CCPs or executing with UK counterparties, the arrangement means continuity of the status quo: no immediate change to registration requirements, substituted compliance expectations, or the treatment of UK-regulated entities under CFTC cross-border guidance.

Mandated versus proposed

It is worth drawing the distinctions the release leaves implicit. The extension itself is operative now — that is the mandated element. UK comparability determinations and exemptive orders are not issued; they are the pending work product. The no-action relief is a staff position, which means it can be modified or withdrawn by staff action, and it does not carry the durability of a Commission-level rule or determination.

That distinction carries operational weight. Firms building long-term cross-border infrastructure — connectivity, clearing arrangements, documentation — have been running on staff letters renewed in successive cycles since 2019. Each extension preserves continuity but defers the permanent legal basis. The February 2019 statement from the CFTC, the Bank of England, the PRA and the FCA remains the reference point for the bilateral framework.

What to watch

The forward signal in the release is the CFTC's stated engagement with "the relevant UK authorities" on analyzing UK law. When UK comparability determinations and exemptive orders surface — whether as proposed orders with comment periods or direct determinations — they would replace the serial no-action extensions with a standing framework for UK entities, and desks should expect the transition to carry its own compliance deadlines.