SEC Extends Treasury Cross-Margining to Customers, Completing Key Step in Clearing Overhaul

The Securities and Exchange Commission on April 15, 2026, issued a conditional exemptive order permitting customer cross-margining of cash market positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered clearing agency with futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared by a registered derivatives clearing organization. Until now, only clearing members — not their customers — could cross-margin futures positions in U.S. Treasury securities cleared at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with cash market positions cleared at the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation.

The exemptive order carves out relief from the broker-dealer customer protection rule for a broker-dealer that is dually registered as a futures commission merchant with the CFTC and is a joint clearing member of both the clearing agency and the derivatives clearing organization. The relief is conditional: the broker-dealer must meet the order's specified conditions to make cross-margining available to eligible customers through a futures account.

Alongside the exemptive order, the SEC approved a proposed rule change filed by FICC under which FICC would enter into a proposed Third Amended and Restated Cross-Margining Agreement with CME and incorporate that agreement into the FICC Government Securities Division rules. The agreement would extend cross-margining availability to positions cleared and carried for customers by a dually registered broker-dealer and futures commission merchant that is a common member of both FICC and CME.

SEC Commissioner Mark T. Uyeda, who has been leading the SEC's efforts in this area, said the issuance of orders completes another step in the implementation of Treasury clearing and advances the goal of both the SEC and the CFTC to unlock additional liquidity and helps ensure the market for U.S. Treasury securities remains resilient.

A related CFTC exemptive order will be published on CFTC.gov and in the Federal Register. The SEC's exemptive order and rule-change approval will be available on SEC.gov before Federal Register publication.