Commodity Futures Trading Commission November 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 750 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ``Dodd-Frank Act'' or ``Act'') establishes an interagency working group (``interagency group''), headed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the ``CFTC''), to conduct a study on the oversight of existing and prospective carbon markets to ensure an efficient, secure, and transparent carbon market, including oversight of spot markets and derivative markets. The members of the interagency group are the Chairman of the CFTC, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission and the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration, or their designees. In conducting the study, the Dodd-Frank Act directs the interagency group to consult, as appropriate, with representatives of exchanges, clearing houses, self-regulatory bodies, major carbon market participants, consumers, and the general public. To assist the interagency group in conducting the study and formulating recommendations for the oversight of existing and prospective carbon markets, the CFTC is issuing this request for information through public comment.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is proposing regulations to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The proposed regulations set forth certain duties imposed upon swap dealers and major swap participants registered with the Commission with regard to: Risk management procedures; monitoring of trading to prevent violations of applicable position limits; diligent supervision; business continuity and disaster recovery; disclosure and the ability of regulators to obtain general information; and antitrust considerations. The proposed regulations would implement the new statutory framework of section 4s(j) of the Commodity Exchange Act, added by section 731 of the Dodd-Frank Act, excepting regulations related to conflicts of interest pursuant to section 4s(j)(5), which will be addressed in a separate rulemaking. These regulations set forth certain duties with which swap dealers and major swap participants must comply to maintain registration as a swap dealer or major swap participant.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These proposed rules establish a registration requirement that applies to foreign boards of trade (FBOT) that wish to provide their identified members or other participants located in the United States with direct access to their electronic trading and order matching systems.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act). The proposed regulations establish conflicts of interest requirements for futures commission merchants (FCMs) and introducing brokers (IBs) for the purpose of ensuring that such persons implement adequate policies and procedures in compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as amended by the Dodd-Frank Act.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing to amend its regulations regarding the investment of customer segregated funds and funds held in an account subject to Commission Regulation 30.7 (30.7 funds). Certain amendments reflect the implementation of new statutory provisions enacted under Title IX of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The proposed rules address: Certain changes to the list of permitted investments, a clarification of the liquidity requirement, the removal of rating requirements, an expansion of concentration limits including asset-based, issuer-based, and counterparty concentration restrictions. It also addresses revisions to the acknowledgment letter requirement for investment in a money market mutual fund (MMMF), revisions to the list of exceptions to the next-day redemption requirement for MMMFs, the application of customer segregated funds investment limitations to 30.7 funds, the removal of ratings requirements for depositories of 30.7 funds, and the elimination of the option to designate a depository for 30.7 funds.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is proposing rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title IX of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These proposed rules apply to futures commission merchants, designated clearing organizations and commodity pool operators. The proposed rules implement the new statutory framework that requires agencies to replace any reference to or reliance on credit ratings in their regulations with an appropriate alternative standard.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is proposing reporting regulations that are reasonably necessary for implementing and enforcing aggregate position limits for certain physical commodity derivatives. As a result of recent legislative reforms, the Commission may adopt regulations establishing aggregate position limits for designated contract market (``DCM'') physical commodity futures contracts and swaps that are economically equivalent to such contracts. The Commission currently receives, and uses for market surveillance purposes, including position limit enforcement, data on large positions in all physical commodity futures and option contracts traded on DCMs. However, there is no analogous reporting structure in place for economically equivalent swaps, which until recently were largely unregulated financial contracts. The Commission's proposal would require position reports on economically equivalent swaps from clearing organizations, their members and swap dealers. Notably, the proposed regulations also include a sunset provision. The sunset provision would render the regulations ineffective upon the Commission's issuance of an order finding that operating swap data repositories (``SDRs'') are capable of processing positional data in a manner that would enable the Commission to set and enforce aggregate position limits.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is proposing rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These proposed rules apply to the review of swaps by the Commission to determine whether the swaps are required to be cleared.