On June 4, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted to approve a final rule to amend various portions of Part 49 of CFTC Regulations relating to swap data repository indemnification and related matters. The CFTC also voted to approve two rule proposals, including (1) proposed amendments relating to Volcker Rule restrictions on proprietary trading and… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is proposing various amendments to the de minimis exception from registration as a swap dealer. The de minimis exception provides that a person is not deemed to be a swap dealer unless its swap dealing activities exceed an aggregate gross notional amount of $8 billion measured over any 12-month period.… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a meeting on June 4 at 9:30 a.m. (ET), which will be open to the public. The meeting will cover the following topics: Final Rule: Indemnification (Amendments to the Swap Data Access Provisions of Part 49 and Certain Other Matters); Proposed Rule: Volcker Rule (Revisions to Prohibitions and… Continue Reading
On May 17, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a proposed rule to amend the CFTC’s margin requirements for uncleared swaps for swap dealers and major swap participants. The proposed rule amendments are intended to make the same changes to the CFTC margin requirements that federal banking regulators recently proposed for the margin rules for… Continue Reading
On May 21, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a staff advisory that provides guidance to designated contract markets (DCMs) and swap execution facilities (SEFs) that plan to list virtual currency derivatives for trading and clearing organizations (DCOs) intending to clear virtual currency derivatives. The advisory notes that the CFTC’s recommendations are informed by the… Continue Reading
On May 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order granting Australian Securities Exchange Limited (ASX24) registration as a foreign board of trade (FBOT). As a registered FBOT, ASX24 is authorized to permit members and other exchange participants to trade directly on its platform without having to trade through an intermediary. With this order,… Continue Reading
On May 21, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it had signed a mutual cooperation agreement with the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) to promote information sharing between the CFTC and state securities regulators. The agreement is designed to assist in the enforcement of the Commodity Exchange Act, which state securities regulators and… Continue Reading
On May 16, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) provided no-action relief for certain non-US persons from counting swaps with international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, that are incorporated or based in the United States in determining swap dealer and major swap participant status as… Continue Reading
On May 17, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order to the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) through its Part 30 exemptive program, which affords regulatory deference to foreign regulatory frameworks and provides US customers greater access to certain foreign futures markets. The order allows NSE’s members to directly accept US customer funds… Continue Reading
On May 2, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight responded to a request for an interpretation regarding CFTC Rule 150.4(b)(1), which provides an exception from the CFTC’s speculative position limit aggregation rules for certain “passive” investors in commodity pools. Generally, for purposes of calculating compliance with speculative position limits, the CFTC’s rules… Continue Reading
On April 25, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission published in the Federal Register a Request for Input about potential prize competitions designed to further various CFTC initiatives, including LabCFTC. (For a complete discussion of LabCFTC, please refer to the May 19, 2017 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest.)… Continue Reading
On March 30, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued Letter 18-09, which granted exemptive relief to a commodity pool operator (CPO) of a foreign “Master Fund” and a US “Feeder Fund.” CFTC rules generally require that the financial statements a CPO is required to provide US pool… Continue Reading
On March 27, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued Notice I-18-07, reminding commodity pool operators (CPOs), commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and introducing brokers (IBs) to immediately notify NFA by amending the firm-level section of their respective annual questionnaires if they trade any virtual currency products or solicit or accept any order in virtual currency products,… Continue Reading
On March 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission published in the Federal Register a request for nominees for the membership positions on the Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC). MRAC is a discretionary advisory committee that conducts public meetings and submits reports and recommendations to the CFTC on matters including systemic risk and changes in the… Continue Reading
On February 23, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) issued No-Action Letter 18-04, which extends relief previously granted to the Shanghai Clearing House (SHCH) under CFTC No-Action Letter 16-56 (as reported in the June 3, 2016, edition of Corporate and Financial Weekly Digest), and renewed in CFTC No-Action Letters 17-26… Continue Reading
On February 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued Exemptive Relief Letter 18-05, which granted relief to a commodity pool operator (CPO) of a commodity pool operated as a “fund of funds.” The Letter provided the CPO with additional time after the end of each calendar quarter to… Continue Reading
On February 19, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) signed the “Cooperation Arrangement on Financial Technology Innovation,” which memorializes the intention of the CFTC and FCA to collaborate and support their respective financial technology (FinTech) initiatives—LabCFTC and FCA Innovate. The arrangement intends to support these FinTech initiatives through an… Continue Reading
On February 20, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) published Staff Letter 18-03, which extends the time-limited no-action relief provided in Staff Letter 16-85 for entities submitting swaps for clearing by derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) operating under (1) exemptive orders issued by the CFTC; or (2) no-action relief granted by the… Continue Reading
On February 19, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) (collectively the Regulators) published a press release announcing that they have signed a Cooperation Agreement on the same date with each other on financial technology (FinTech) innovation.… Continue Reading
On February 15, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission published and requested comment on an interim final rule to amend the CFTC’s primary definition regulation in an attempt to make such regulation user-friendly. Specifically, the CFTC amended Regulation 1.3 to remove lettered paragraphs and reorder defined terms in alphabetical order. Related cross-references to Regulation 1.3 in… Continue Reading
On February 12, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an Order of Registration (Order) granting ICE Futures Singapore Pte. Ltd. (ICEFS) registration as a foreign board of trade. The Order permits ICEFS to provide its identified members and other participants located in the United States with direct access to its electronic order entry and trade… Continue Reading
On February 5, the Prudential Regulators—the five federal banking regulators for swap dealers that are banks—proposed technical amendments to their margin rules for uncleared swaps. The amendments aim to harmonize the definition of Eligible Master Netting Agreement (EMNA) in the margin rules with recent changes made to the definition of “Qualifying Master Netting Agreement” (QMNA)… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has released the agenda for the Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) public meeting that will be held on January 31. The public meeting will feature four different panels, in addition to opening remarks from Rostin Behnam, MRAC Sponsor and Commissioner; J. Christopher Giancarlo, CFTC Chairman; and Brian D. Quintenz, a… Continue Reading
On January 18, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued a Notice to inform commodity pool operators that two additional questions concerning virtual currency activities have been added to the cover page of the annual pool financial statement. The changes are effective for financial statements as of October 31, 2017 or later. NFA’s Notice I-18-03 is… Continue Reading
