The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will host an open meeting at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23, at which it expects to cover the following topics: notice of proposed rulemaking regarding amendments to regulations on certain swap data depository and swap data reporting requirements; notice of proposed rulemaking regarding amendments to derivatives clearing organization general… Continue Reading
The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued no-action relief to swap dealers (SDs) for certain swaps with prime brokerage customers where the customer initiates the swap by executing a trade as agent for the SD on a swap execution facility (SEF).… Continue Reading
On May 25, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted an interim final rule designed to provide greater certainty to the global marketplace in the event of a “no-deal Brexit.” In the event that the UK leaves the EU without a negotiated withdrawal agreement, affected swap dealers and major swap participants may be required to transfer… Continue Reading
On March 25, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission adopted an amendment to the definition of a swap dealer found in CFTC Rule 1.3 to allow certain insured depository institutions (IDIs) to provide risk mitigating swaps to customers in connection with the origination of loans without counting the swaps towards their de minimis threshold. Under CFTC… Continue Reading
On March 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Intelligence Branch in the Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued a report analyzing the entering of manual and automatic orders in commodity futures markets in the United States to determine how technological change is affecting futures trading. DMO staff used internal CFTC transactional data for 30… Continue Reading
On March 28, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced that it has unanimously approved two final rule amendments designed to ease registrants’ regulatory burdens. Both final rule proposals originated from the CFTC’s Project KISS Initiative, which is intended to simplify and reduce burdens by revisiting our rules based on staff implementation experience and public comment.… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) will hold a meeting on April 15. The GMAC will hear presentations on how regulators are fulfilling the 2009 G20 directive regarding the OTC derivatives market. Specifically, the GMAC will examine the status of the four key pillars of the original… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) will hold a meeting on April 17. The meeting will focus on the following three topics: derivatives markets’ responses to physical markets’ developments; exchange-traded energy derivatives markets; and the availability of clearing and other services in the energy derivatives… Continue Reading
On March 1, the National Futures Association (NFA) published Notice I-19-07 (Notice), alerting Members that April 1 will be the effective date for amendments to NFA’s Interpretive Notice entitled NFA Compliance Rules 2-9, 2-36 and 2-49: Information Systems Security Programs (Interpretive Notice). (For a discussion of such amendments, please refer to the January 11, 2019… Continue Reading
On March 12, the National Futures Association (NFA) published Notice I-19-08, notifying Member futures commission merchants (FCMs) and introducing brokers (IBs) of a March 8 advisory published by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) regarding updates to the Financial Action Task Force’s list of jurisdictions with deficiencies regarding anti-money laundering and combating the financing of… Continue Reading
On March 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a joint statement announcing their mutual recognition of certain derivatives trading venues in the United States and Singapore. The CFTC issued an order exempting certain derivatives trading facilities regulated by the MAS from the registration requirements for swap execution… Continue Reading
On March 6, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement issued an Enforcement Advisory regarding self-reporting and cooperation for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) involving foreign corrupt practices. Providing further guidance regarding the Enforcement Division’s cooperation and self-reporting program, the Advisory notes that the Enforcement Division will apply a presumption that it… Continue Reading
On March 5, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed amendments to NFA Bylaw 301 and Compliance Rule 2-24. The proposed changes to NFA Bylaw 301(l) are intended to specify that any individual applying for approval as a futures commission merchant (FCM), introducing broker (IB), commodity pool operator (CPO)… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will hold a meeting on March 7 at 10:00 a.m. ET, which will be open to the public. The meeting will cover the following topics: Amendment to the Comparability Determination for Japan: Margin Requirements for Uncleared Swaps for Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants; Comparability Determination for Australia: Margin Requirements… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) will hold a meeting on Wednesday, March 27. The meeting will be held in the Conference Center at the CFTC headquarters from 10:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. ET. Representatives of several TAC subcommittees, including Automated and Modern Trading Markets, Distributed Ledger Technology and Market… Continue Reading
On February 25, the Bank of England (BoE), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission published a joint statement on measures intended to ensure the continuity of UK-US derivatives trading and clearing activities following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit).… Continue Reading
On February 15, four members of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commissioner Stump recused herself) filed a comment letter regarding the standardized approach for calculating the exposure amount of derivative contracts proposed by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the… Continue Reading
On February 12, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced 2019 Examination Priorities (the “Examination Priorities”) for registrants of the Division of Market Oversight (DMO), Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO), and Division of Clearing & Risk (DCR). This marks the first time that the agency has published Examination Priorities for its divisions.… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is requesting public comment on a rule amendment certification filing by ICE Futures U.S., Inc. (IFUS). As described in the certification, the proposed amendment to IFUS Rule 4.26 would allow for the implementation of Passive Order Protection (POP) Functionality, which is intended to reduce latency advantages between traders engaged in… Continue Reading
On December 21, 2018, the Division of Market Oversight (DMO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued Letter 18-33 responding to a request for relief from compliance with certain position aggregation requirements under CFTC Regulation 150.4(b)(2)(i)(D). CFTC Regulation 150.4(b)(2) provides an owned-entity exemption from aggregation. Any person with an ownership or equity interest in an… Continue Reading
On December 10, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission a proposed Interpretive Notice to NFA Compliance Rule 2-9, which would provide commodity pool operators with guidance on designing and implementing an adequate system of internal controls. On January 31, the NFA issued Notice I-19-03 announcing the recent adoption of… Continue Reading
On January 7, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued a notice to its members that amendments to its Interpretative Notice, entitled NFA Compliance Rules 2-9, 2-36 and 2-49: Information Systems Security Programs, were finalized and will take effect on April 1.… Continue Reading
On December 20, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) and Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) issued several staff letters related to Eurex Clearing AG (Eurex) for the purpose of (1) authorizing Eurex to clear and settle swaps on behalf of US persons and (2) facilitating such… Continue Reading
As part of its LabCFTC initiative, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a Request for Input (RFI) to deepen the CFTC’s understanding of the technology, mechanics, and markets for Ether and its use on the Ethereum Network. In particular, the RFI seeks to understand similarities and distinctions between Ether and Bitcoin (as well as other… Continue Reading
