Co-authored by Marilyn Selby Okoshi and Christian B. Hennion.
Effective October 3, the National Futures Association (NFA) has amended its registration rules 401 and 402 to exempt associated persons (APs) of NFA member futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors from the NFA proficiency (Series 3 examination) requirements if the AP’s activities that are subject to CFTC jurisdiction are limited to swaps, plus in the case of APs of CPOs, a de minimis amount of other commodity interest activity. APs who indicate on Form 8-R that their activities will be limited solely to swaps will be automatically exempt. A CPO who would be able to claim exemption or exclusion from CPO registration available to firms engaging in de minimis trading under either CFTC Rule 4.13(a)(3) or CFTC Rule 4.5(c)(2)(iii)(A) or (B) if swaps were not included in the calculation of the commodity interest trading of the pool must request waiver of the Series 3 requirement for the APs it sponsors in writing. Any NFA member that obtains a waiver for its APs must notify NFA if the AP or the sponsor becomes ineligible for the waiver.
NFA’s Notice to Members I-12-24, which provides additional information about these exemptions and detailed instructions for making any necessary filings, is available here.