The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed to amend its regulations to eliminate the requirement for registered firms to provide annual privacy notices to their customers, under certain conditions, consistent with amendments made to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in late 2015. If adopted, the proposed amendments would provide an exemption to registered futures commission merchants, retail… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has amended its order granting an exemption from swap execution facility (SEF) registration to include four additional multilateral trading facilities: Creditex Brokerage LLP; Currenex; FX Connect; and Thomson Reuters. The order, which was originally issued by the CFTC in December 2017 and discussed in the December 15, 2017 edition of… Continue Reading
National Futures Association (NFA) has proposed to amend its interpretive notice on information systems security programs (ISSPs) to further clarify each member’s obligations relating to its ISSP, including training, approval and incident reporting. With respect to ISSP training, the amended interpretive notice will require members to train their employees upon hiring and on at least… Continue Reading
On November 27, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s LabCFTC released “A CFTC Primer on Smart Contracts” to provide information on a variety of financial technology (FinTech) topics. LabCFTC is a hub designed for the CFTC to engage with the FinTech community. The primer defines a “smart contract” as “a set of coded computer functions” that… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Market Risk Advisory Committee will hold a meeting on December 4. The meeting will be held at CFTC’s headquarters in Washington, DC beginning at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public. The Committee will receive a report from the Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Subcommittee, followed… Continue Reading
On November 19, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved a final rule to amend its margin requirements for uncleared swaps for swap dealers and major swap participants for which there is no prudential regulator (CFTC Margin Rule). As a part of the Project KISS initiative, the amendments were designed to harmonize the CFTC Margin Rule… Continue Reading
On November 5, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission held an open meeting to consider the following matters relating to swaps and swap execution facilities: Final Rule: Amending the De Minimis Exception to the Swap Dealer Definition Proposed Rule: Amendments to Regulations on Swap Execution Facilities and Trade Execution Requirement Request for Comment Regarding the Practice… Continue Reading
On October 31, the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued Letter No. 18-26 to provide continuing relief to a futures commission merchant (FCM) from certain requirements regarding the holding of customer-owned securities as margin for trading on foreign futures and foreign options markets. This letter supersedes… Continue Reading
On October 31, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Office of the Chief Economist issued a report on “Phase 5” of the uncleared margin rules (UMR). The purpose of the report is to provide a guide to regulators in their responses to requests for relief from various industry representatives.… Continue Reading
On October 9, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission approved proposed rules intended to simplify regulations for commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTAs) generally by codifying existing staff advisory and no-action letter relief and streamlining registration requirements for CPOs that operate in multiple jurisdictions.… Continue Reading
On October 11, the National Futures Association (NFA) issued a notice to its members that amendments to NFA Bylaw 1303 take effect on October 31. NFA Bylaw 1303 allows the NFA to deem an NFA member’s failure to pay certain fees as a request for withdrawal from NFA membership. Bylaw 1303 will be deemed amended,… Continue Reading
On October 1, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo released a white paper addressing the regulation of cross-border swaps. The white paper, titled “Cross-Border Swaps Regulation Version 2.0: A Risk-Based Approach with Deference to Comparable Non-U.S. Regulation,” sets forth various proposed changes to the CFTC’s current cross-border approach.… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have entered into a cooperation arrangement on financial technology innovation. The arrangement is intended to facilitate cooperation and the sharing of information between the CFTC and ASIC relating to financial technology and the use of technology for purposes of regulation and oversight… Continue Reading
National Futures Association (NFA) has issued a notice to commodity pool operator (CPO) and commodity trading advisor (CTA) members clarifying the method by which CPOs and CTAs should calculate the Current Asset/Current Liability (CA/CL) ratios and the Total Revenue/Total Expenses (TR/TE) ratios for purposes of NFA Forms PQR and PR.… Continue Reading
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an advisory to announce that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated its list of jurisdictions with strategic anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) deficiencies. In the advisory, FATF has removed Iraq and Vanuatu from the list and added Pakistan to the list. The advisory… Continue Reading
National Futures Association (NFA), Futures Industry Association (FIA) and other industry professionals have collaborated to launch an FIA training course on safeguarding customer funds. The course, which is designed to assist futures commission merchants in meeting their training requirements under Commodity Futures Trading Commission Rule 1.11, covers the basics of segregation, residual interest, investment of… Continue Reading
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced that its Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) will hold a meeting on Friday, October 5. The meeting will be held in the Conference Center at the CFTC’s Washington, DC headquarters from 10:00 am – 3:30 pm ET. Representatives of several TAC subcommittees, including the Automated and Modern Trading… Continue Reading
On September 12, the National Futures Association issued Notice I-18-15, announcing that the amendments to NFA’s Interpretive Notice entitled NFA Compliance Rule 2-30(b): Risk Disclosure Statement for Security Futures Contracts (Interpretive Notice) will become effective on October 12.… Continue Reading
On September 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued Release 7784-18, announcing that the CFTC and the Monetary Authority of Singapore signed the Cooperation Arrangement on Financial Technology Innovation (FinTech Arrangement) on September 13. The FinTech Arrangement supports both authorities’ efforts to facilitate FinTech development and innovation in their respective markets by focusing on information… Continue Reading
On September 4, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, in conjunction with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Securities and Exchange Commission, extended the comment period on the proposed amendments to the regulations implementing Section 13 of the… Continue Reading
On September 6, the National Futures Association (NFA) sent a notice to its members with information regarding the Interpretive Notice to NFA Compliance Rule 2-49. NFA Compliance Rule 2-49 requires swap dealers and major swap participants (collectively, SDs) to promptly submit relevant information to the NFA in the form and manner prescribed by NFA. The… Continue Reading
On August 29, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (Division) issued a no-action letter confirming that it will not recommend enforcement action against a futures commission merchant (FCM) if the accountant’s audit opinion included in the FCM’s annual financial report does not include “critical audit matters” (or the absence… Continue Reading
On August 28, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (Division) issued time-limited, no-action relief, permitting certain insured depository institutions (IDIs) from counting certain swaps toward the swap dealer de minimis threshold. Relief was requested after certain IDIs experienced a spike in the demand for interest rate swaps from existing… Continue Reading
On August 28, the US Senate confirmed the nominations of Dawn Stump and Dan Berkovitz as commissioners of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. With the addition of two new commissioners, all five commissioner positions have now been filled. Commissioners Brian D. Quintenz and Rostin Behnam and Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo released statements following the Senate… Continue Reading
