On April 22, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Data, Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk (collectively, the Divisions) issued CFTC Letter No. 21-11, which (1) provides no-action relief to KalshiEX LLC (Kalshi), a designated contract market, and LedgerX, LLC (LedgerX), a derivatives clearing organization, from reporting to swap data repositories data for binary option transactions executed on or subject to the rules of Kalshi and cleared by LedgerX; and (2) exempts Kalshi and LedgerX from certain related recordkeeping requirements.
Continue Reading CFTC Issues Conditional Relief From Reporting Fully Collateralized Binary Option Data to Swap Data Repositories

On April 8, the Market Participants Division (MPD), Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR), Division of Data (DOD) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly issued no-action relief, effective immediately, to maintain the regulatory status quo for swap dealers (SD) following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the

On April 14, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division (MPD) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) jointly issued CFTC Staff Letter 21-10 to extend, for a limited time, parts of the temporary no-action relief granted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which expired on April 15.
Continue Reading CFTC Staff Issues Continuation of Certain No-Action Relief to Market Participants in Response to COVID-19

On January 19, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Market Participants Division (MPD) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued CFTC Staff Letter No. 21-04 and Letter No. 21-05 (the Staff Letters) to extend, for a limited time, parts of the temporary no-action relief granted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which expired on January 15.
Continue Reading CFTC Staff Provides Limited Continuation of Certain No-Action Relief to Market Participants in Response to COVID-19

On December 17, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight issued CFTC Letter No. 20-45, which extends relief from the trade execution requirement for certain inter-affiliate transactions provided under CFTC Letter No. 17-67 (available here) and prior staff letters. CFTC Letter No. 17-67 provides relief from the trade execution requirement under CFTC Regulation 50.52(a) with regard to swaps that are entered into by eligible affiliate counterparties and cleared, regardless of the affiliates’ ability to claim the inter-affiliate clearing exemption under CFTC Regulation 50.52(b). The no-action relief was set to expire on December 31.
Continue Reading CFTC Extends Temporary No-Action Relief From Trade Execution Requirement for Certain Affiliated Counterparties

On December 3, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO, and collectively, the Divisions) issued CFTC Letter No. 20-43, an interpretation regarding Sections 2(h)(1) and 2(h)(8) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and the CFTC regulations thereunder.
Continue Reading CFTC Interprets and Issues No-action Relief from Certain Clearing and Trade Execution Requirements

On November 24, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Market Participants Division (MPD) and Division of Market Oversight (DMO) announced an extension of two previously granted no-action letters to provide greater certainty to the global marketplace in connection with the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU).
Continue Reading CFTC Staff Extends Existing Brexit-Related Relief to Provide Market Certainty

On November 19, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued a staff letter extending no-action relief to certain CFTC-registered swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs). The no-action relief, which was initially granted in 2013 and subsequently extended several times, was set to expire on December 1.
Continue Reading CFTC Extends Temporary Swap Data Reporting Relief for Certain International Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants

On November 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued CFTC Staff Letter No. 20-35, which extends temporary no-action relief to swap execution facilities (SEFs) and other market participants originally provided by CFTC Staff Letter No. 17-60. (For additional information regarding CFTC Staff Letter No. 17-60, please refer to the November 17, 2017 edition of Corporate & Financial Weekly Digest.) Staff Letter No. 17-60 provided that DMO would not recommend enforcement action against a SEF that has rules and/or procedures that use the SEF’s non-order book trading systems or platforms to facilitate the execution of block trades for swaps that are intended-to-be-cleared, and thus are not compliant with CFTC Regulation 43.2, subject to certain conditions being met.
Continue Reading CFTC Extends Relief for SEFs From Certain Block Trade Requirements

On November 13, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight (DMO) issued CFTC Staff Letter No. 20-36, which extends no-action relief to swap execution facilities (SEFs) from the requirement to capture post-execution allocation information in their audit trail data.
Continue Reading CFTC Extends No-Action Relief to SEFs From Certain Audit Trail Requirements Related to Post-Execution Allocation Information