CFTC Allows Derivatives Clearing Organizations to Settle Daily With Trust Companies

The practical effect is narrow but structural: it gives DCOs a formally sanctioned path to settle daily obligations through trust companies rather than only traditional settlement banks, which matters most to smaller clearing members and to trust institutions seeking a foothold in clearing flows. Because the relief is conditioned on treating those trust companies as settlement banks under existing CFTC requirements, it extends the current framework rather than creating a parallel one. The open question is whether DCOs actually route routine settlement through trust companies now that the path is clarified, and whether the no-action approach hardens into something more permanent.