In recent speeches at the Yale Club in NYC (Bart Chilton) and the OpRisk Europe Conference in London (Scott O'Malia) gave a very different view on how they see the cross-border derivatives rules guidance progressing. Whereas O'Malia wants a prolongation of the exemptive relief until the end of 2013 to ensure proper definition of the final rule, the finalisation of the definition of a US person as well as an agreed harmonisation approach with international regulators, Chilton (in his usual extravagant way of expressing himself) seeks to introduce the final guidance before or on July 12th (the day the exemptive relief expires), albeit with a phase-in period for overseas companies. The coming 4 weeks will keep the financial industry on their toes and the current discussions about potential successors of Gary Gensler and Jill Sommers will not help that matter. O'Malia also discussed the recently adopted SEF, MAT and swap block rules. And he is ambivalent about the final outcome to say the least. Especially the automatic, arbitrary and not data-founded changes a year hence on the RFQ increase from 2 to 3 and block size threshold make him uncomfortable. So, forget your summer holidays if you are working in compliance departments of international banks – the heat is on and this is not only because summer has finally arrived…