Commodity Futures Trading Commission July 2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is proposing new rules and related forms to enhance its identification of futures and swap market participants. The proposed rules would leverage the Commission's existing position and transaction reporting programs by requiring the electronic submission of trader identification and market participant data on amended Forms 102 and 40, and on new Form 71. The proposed rules also incorporate a revised approach to the Commission's previous initiative to collect ownership and control information, through a dedicated ownership and control report (``OCR''), for trading accounts active on reporting markets that are designated contract markets or swap execution facilities. The Commission welcomes public comment on all aspects of its proposal.

The CFTC announces that on Thursday, July 26, 2012, the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee (``TAC'') will hold an emergency public meeting at the CFTC's Washington, DC headquarters, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The TAC will focus on possible technology solutions to, among other things, enable futures commission merchant customers, self- regulatory organizations and the CFTC to verify in near real-time the accuracy of the amount of funds held in customer segregated accounts.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or ``Commission'') is proposing a rule pursuant to its authority under Section 4(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) allowing cooperatives meeting certain conditions to elect not to submit for clearing certain swaps that such cooperatives would otherwise be required to clear in accordance with Section 2(h)(1) of the CEA.

On May 16, 2012, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or the ``Commission'') published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Amendment (``Notice'') to extend the temporary exemptive relief the Commission granted on July 14, 2011 (``July 14 Order'') from certain provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA'') that otherwise would have taken effect on the general effective date of title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``the Dodd-Frank Act'')July 16, 2011. This final order extends the July 14 Order with certain modifications. Specifically, it removes references to the entities terms, including ``swap dealer,'' ``major swap participant,'' and ``eligible contract participant'' in light of the final joint rulemaking of the CFTC and Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC'') further defining those terms issued on April 18, 2012; extends the potential latest expiration date of the July 14 Order to December 31, 2012, or, depending on the nature of the relief, such other compliance date as may be determined by the Commission; allows the clearing of agricultural swaps, as described herein; and removes any reference to the exempt commercial market (``ECM'') and exempt board of trade (``EBOT'') grandfather relief previously issued by the Commission.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'') is proposing to grant, pursuant to section 4(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act (``CEA''), temporary exemptive relief in order to allow non-U.S. swap dealers and non-U.S. major swap participants to delay compliance with certain entity-level requirements of the CEA (and Commission regulations promulgated thereunder), subject to specified conditions. Additionally, with respect to transaction-level requirements of the CEA (and Commission regulations promulgated thereunder), the relief would allow non-U.S. swap dealers and non-U.S. major swap participants, as well as foreign branches of U.S. swap dealers and major swap participants, to comply only with those requirements as may be required in the home jurisdiction of such non-U.S. swap dealers and non-U.S. major swap participants (or in the case of foreign branches of a U.S. swap dealer or U.S. major swap participant, the foreign location of the branch) for swaps with non-U.S. counterparties. This relief would become effective concurrently with the date upon which swap dealers and major swap participants must first apply for registration and expire 12 months following the publication of this proposed order in the Federal Register. Finally, U.S. swap dealers and U.S. major swap participants may delay compliance with certain entity-level requirements of the CEA (and Commission regulations promulgated thereunder) from the date upon which swap dealers and major swap participants must apply for registration until January 1, 2013.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission are correcting final rules that appeared in the Federal Register of May 23, 2012 (77 FR 30596). The rules further defined the terms ``swap dealer,'' ``security-based swap dealer,'' ``major swap participant,'' ``major security-based swap participant'' and ``eligible contract participant.'' Only the rules of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are subject to this correction. This document also corrects a footnote in the Supplementary Information accompanying the final rules.