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
On January 9, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it had unanimously approved final rules that update Parts 3 (Registration) and 9 (Review of Exchange Disciplinary, Access Denial or Other Adverse Actions). These updates integrate existing advisory guidance, incorporate swap execution facilities, and update provisions currently applicable to designated contract markets. The CFTC also approved… Continue Reading
On January 5, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued a no-action letter authorizing registered futures commission merchants and introducing brokers to exclude deferred tax liabilities that are directly related to the capitalized costs of certain non-allowable assets when computing their adjusted net capital under Regulation 1.17. The tax… Continue Reading
On January 11, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued a Notice that the amendments to NFA Compliance Rules 2-36 and 2-43 submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on December 4, 2017 (as reported in the December 8, 2017 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest) were approved. The amendments will apply to forex dealer… Continue Reading
On December 14, 2017, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued Notices regarding commodity pool operators (CPOs), commodity trading advisors (CTAs) and introducing brokers (IBs), outlining new reporting requirements for CPOs, CTAs and IBs that deal in virtual currencies.… Continue Reading
On December 15, 2017, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a proposed interpretation on what constitutes “actual delivery” of a virtual currency for purposes of Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) section 2(c)(2)(D)(ii)(III)(aa).… Continue Reading
On December 19, 2017, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued a reminder notice to its members regarding the upcoming effective dates for the submission of standardized data for swap valuation dispute notices (see Notice I-17-13) and monthly risk data reports (see notice I-17-10, as reported in the June 2, 2017, edition of Corporate and Financial… Continue Reading
On December 8, in response to a request by the European Commission (EC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued an order exempting certain multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) and organized trading facilities (OTFs) authorized within the European Union (EU) from the requirement to register with the CFTC as swap execution facilities (SEFs).… Continue Reading
On December 11, at the request of the Futures Industry Association (FIA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (Division) issued an interpretive letter regarding the “solely incidental” exclusion from registration as a commodity trading advisor (CTA). Under the relevant provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules, a… Continue Reading
On December 12, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission requested comment on a proposed exemptive order, pursuant to Section 4(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), which would grant ICE Clear Credit, ICE Clear US and ICE Clear Europe (ICE DCOs) limited exemptions from Section 4d of the CEA and CFTC Rule 1.25. Subject to the… Continue Reading
On December 14, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission requested comment on proposed amendments submitted by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (CME) under CFTC Regulation 40.10. The proposed amendments would create a new type of clearing membership, the “direct funding participant” (DFP). A DFP would be allowed to clear trades for its own account directly with… Continue Reading
On November 30, the National Futures Association (NFA) submitted proposed amendments to NFA Registration Rule 802 to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The amendment is intended to ensure the language of Rule 802 is consistent with that in recently amended registration forms. Specifically, the amendments reflect changes in the language of Forms 7-R; 8-R; and… Continue Reading
