On June 20, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued Notice to Members I-19-15 (Notice), announcing the approval of a $1,750 annual surcharge (Surcharge) on certain NFA members, including futures commission merchants for which NFA is the designated self-regulatory organization, introducing brokers, commodity pool operators and commodity trading advisors that are approved as swap firms pursuant… Continue Reading
On June 12, the National Futures Association (NFA) amended several of its rules and interpretive notices to incorporate expressly supervision requirements for NFA members’ swaps activities. NFA Compliance Rule 2-9(a), as amended, will apply specifically to futures commission merchant (FCM), introducing brokers (IB), commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) members. New NFA… Continue Reading
On June 5, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced the agenda for the upcoming Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC) public meeting that will focus on climate-related financial market risks.… Continue Reading
At the 44th Annual International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Conference in Sydney, Australia, the Chairmen of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission took part in a signing ceremony on May 15 for the IOSCO Enhanced Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information (EMMoU).… Continue Reading
On May 21, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed amendments to NFA Bylaw 1301 regarding the schedule of dues and assessments for swaps firms. NFA Bylaw 1301 imposes dues and assessments on futures commission merchants (FCM) (for which NFA is the designated self-regulatory organization (DSRO)), introducing brokers (IB),… Continue Reading
On May 21, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed amendments to NFA Interpretive Notice Compliance Rule 2-9: Supervision of Branch Offices and Guaranteed IBs. The proposed amendments would replace and supersede an existing Interpretive Notice with the same title.… Continue Reading
On May 14, the Joint Audit Committee (JAC), a representative committee of US futures exchanges and the National Futures Association (NFA), released two regulatory alerts of particular importance to futures commission merchants (FCMs) that clear for customers whose accounts are managed by third-party advisers. The regulatory alerts “reconfirm and reiterate” the JAC’s view of existing… Continue Reading
On May 8, the Division of Enforcement (the “Division”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued its first public enforcement manual (the “Enforcement Manual”). The Enforcement Manual explains the roles of the CFTC and Division generally, and outlines certain general policies and procedures that guide the Division in its investigation and prosecution of violations of… Continue Reading
On April 29, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Chris Giancarlo sent a letter to Randy Quarles, the Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, in which he proposed that the US regulators responsible for the administering the margin rules for uncleared swaps should collaborate in providing some relief… Continue Reading
On April 25, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a proposed rule intended to improve the quality of swap data and update and streamline regulations related to the operations and governance of swap data repositories (SDRs) (Rule Proposal). Among other items, the Rule Proposal is intended to update requirements related to the following: 1) the… Continue Reading
On April 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a series of amendments to regulations that apply to derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) under Part 39 of the CFTC’s regulations, which implements the statutory core principles for DCOs (Rule Proposal). The Rule Proposal is intended, among other things, to streamline the DCO registration and reporting process,… Continue Reading
On May 1, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Clearing and Risk and Office of the Chief Economist jointly issued, CCP Supervisory Street Tests: Reverse Stress Test and Liquidation Stress Test (Stress Test), which is a two-part report covering the results of 1) a reverse stress test of central counterparties (CCPs) or clearinghouses resources;… Continue Reading
On April 19, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a final rule revising CFTC Regulation 160.5. The amended rule implements the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act’s (FAST Act) December 2015 statutory amendment to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB Act) by providing an exception to the requirement that certain futures commission merchants, retail foreign exchange dealers, commodity… Continue Reading
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
