美國期貨與店頭衍生性商品客戶保證金帳戶法制之研究──兼談我國法規範之走向

The Study of Legal and Regulatory Protection for Customer Margin Account in the U.S. Futures and OTC Derivatives Market: The Future of Customer Margin Account Regulation in Taiwan

美國期貨保證金採行分離帳戶之作法，係市場保護的核心制度，期貨交易人繳交之保證金係屬客戶所有，期貨商將之繳存至金融機構並採分離存放之作法，當保管機構發生支付不能，得避免遭第三人主張請求，且在雷曼兄弟、明富環球、百利金申請破產事件後，美國主管機關亦對客戶保證金進行制度改革。
美國二○一○年修法規定交換交易採行集中結算，以減少相對人風險，並要求集中結算交換交易之客戶保證金採行法律分離運作混藏模式，禁止期貨結算機構在雙重違約時使用未違約客戶之保證金，以減少客戶風險。我國期貨交易之管理主要參考美國之作法，本文將以比較法之觀點，檢視美國期貨交易客戶保證金帳戶法制架構與管理制度設計，作為本國未來修法之參考。

A FCM’s segregation of customer funds forms the foundation of the futures industry’s customer protection regime. The clients’assets held in a futures account at an FCM, a bank or clearing house, as belonging to such customer, are protected, and governed specifically by the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations that require the“segregation”of cash and collateral deposited by customers in conjunction with their futures trading preventing from third-party claims while the deposited institutions insolvency.
The CFTC has taken several regulation changes protecting certain margin collateral of FCM customers following the collapses of Lehman Brothers, MF Global and Peregrine Finical Group. The Dodd-Frank Act promotes central clearing as the primary method for managing counterparty risk in OTC derivative swap transactions. The LSOC Model which the CFTC has required for cleared OTC swaps. The LSOC Model offers customers greater protection than the Futures Model against fellow customer risk when double default happens. Because in LSOC model a non-defaulting customer’s margin cannot be used to cover the losses stemming from another customer’s default.
This article highlights the arrangements and design of customer asset protection as well as examines the evolution the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulation for futures and cleared OTC swaps by comparative method. In final, it explores the regulation of customer margin accounts in Taiwan’s futures and OTC derivatives market and analyzes what we should do in the future for the article’s conclusion.