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

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``Commission'' or ``CFTC'') is adopting rules to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These rules address: The documentation between a customer and a futures commission merchant that clears on behalf of the customer; the timing of acceptance or rejection of trades for clearing by derivatives clearing organizations and clearing members; and the risk management procedures of futures commission merchants, swap dealers, and major swap participants that are clearing members. The rules are designed to increase customer access to clearing, to facilitate the timely processing of trades, and to strengthen risk management at the clearing member level.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is adopting regulations to implement certain provisions of Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd- Frank Act). These regulations set forth reporting and recordkeeping requirements and daily trading records requirements for swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs). These regulations also set forth certain duties imposed upon SDs and MSPs 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. In addition, these regulations establish conflicts-of- interest requirements for SDs, MSPs, futures commission merchants (FCMs), and introducing brokers (IBs) with regard to firewalls between research and trading and between clearing and trading. Finally, these regulations also require each FCM, SD, and MSP to designate a chief compliance officer, prescribe qualifications and duties of the chief compliance officer, and require that the chief compliance officer prepare, certify, and furnish to the Commission an annual report containing an assessment of the registrant's compliance activities.

The CFTC announces that on March 29, 2012, the CFTC's Technology Advisory Committee (``TAC'') will hold a public meeting at the CFTC's Washington, DC headquarters, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The TAC committee will focus on automated and high frequency trading, final recommendations of the subcommittee on data standardization, and market structure and technology issues relating to credit limit checks.

This document corrects a reference in the text of the 30-day Notice of Intent to Renew an agency collection of information, Regulations Governing Bankruptcies of Commodity Brokers (OMB Control No. 3038-0021). The notice that is being corrected was published in the Federal Register of March 5, 2012, 77 FR 13101.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'') and the Securities and Exchange Commission (``SEC,'' together with the CFTC, the ``Commissions'') are jointly issuing proposed rules and guidelines to implement new statutory provisions enacted by Title X of the Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. These provisions amend section 615(e) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and direct the Commissions to prescribe rules requiring entities that are subject to the Commissions' jurisdiction to address identity theft in two ways. First, the proposed rules and guidelines would require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement a written identity theft prevention program that is designed to detect, prevent, and mitigate identity theft in connection with certain existing accounts or the opening of new accounts. The Commissions also are proposing guidelines to assist entities in the formulation and maintenance of a program that would satisfy the requirements of the proposed rules. Second, the proposed rules would establish special requirements for any credit and debit card issuers that are subject to the Commissions' jurisdiction, to assess the validity of notifications of changes of address under certain circumstances.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected costs and burden; it includes the actual data collection instruments [if any].

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is proposing amendments to its regulations regarding requirements applicable to investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (``registered investment companies'') whose advisors will be subject to registration as commodity pool operators due to changes that the Commission is adopting.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or ``Commission'') seeks public comment on the collection of certain information by the Commission under section 745 of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act''). The Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'') requires federal agencies to publish a notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information and to allow 60 days for public comment. Section 745 requires the Commission to seek public comment for not less than 30 days with respect to certain industry filings. This notice solicits comments on the provisions of the Commission's final rulemaking on ``Provisions Common to Registered Entities'' under which the Commission would collect comments on the industry filings by publication of documents related to the filings and a request for comments on the Commission's public Web site.\1\

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission) is calling for nominations to the Subcommittee on Automated and High Frequency Trading (Subcommittee) under the auspices of the Technology Advisory Committee. The Subcommittee was established to develop recommendations regarding the definition of high frequency trading (HFT) in the context of the larger universe of automated trading. The definition of HFT is anticipated to serve as an initial step towards assessing the presence and impact of HFT in CFTC regulated markets for consideration of appropriate policy responses. The Subcommittee will report to the full Technology Advisory Committee. Developing a common definition of HFT and the characteristics of HFT will help inform the public debate as to the impact of such trading on markets under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. Regulators, markets, market participants, and the public will benefit from a common understanding of the activities and entities involved in HFT. All members of the Subcommittee will participate and consider possible criteria for inclusion in the definition of HFT within the context of automated trading systems (ATS) and suggest specific thresholds for each criterion. Nominations are sought for highly qualified representatives from industry, exchanges, academia, international regulatory and/or advisory bodies, groups representing interests or organizations involved in and/or affected by the development, design, and operation of ATS and HFT, and government agencies. Individuals seeking to be nominated to the Subcommittee should possess demonstrable expertise in a related field or represent a stakeholder of interest in the issue. Prospective nominees should be open to participating in an open public-private forum. Members of the Subcommittee will be appointed by a vote of the Commission as in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), 5 U.S.C. app. 2, and the charter of Technology Advisory Committee.

This document corrects language in the final rules published in the Federal Register of Thursday, January 19, 2012, regarding the Registration of Swap Dealers and Major Swap Participants. The Commission adopted regulations under the Commodity Exchange Act (Act or CEA) that establish the process for the registration of swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs, and collectively with SDs, Swaps Entities) in accordance with section 4s of the CEA, which was added recently to the CEA by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) is adopting regulations under the Commodity Exchange Act (Act or CEA) that establish the process for the registration of swap dealers (SDs) and major swap participants (MSPs, and collectively with SDs, Swaps Entities) and that require Swaps Entities to become and remain members of a registered futures association (RFA). The Commission is also adopting regulations that define an ``associated person'' of an SD or MSP as a natural person and that implement the prohibition on a Swaps Entity permitting an associated person who is statutorily disqualified from registration from effecting or being involved in effecting swaps on behalf of the Swaps Entity. The Commission is adopting these regulations in accordance with section 4s of the CEA, which was recently added to the CEA by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is establishing two new systems of records under the Privacy Act of 1974: one, for the collection of information related to new procedures for accounting and determining financial responsibility for lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed CFTC property assigned to CFTC employees, volunteers, interns, contractors and consultants; and two, for the collection of information related to internal electronic collaboration tools which use Microsoft SharePoint, including the CFTC Intranet and social media tools within the Intranet.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (``CFTC'' or ``Commission'') is adopting regulations to implement certain statutory provisions enacted by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (``Dodd-Frank Act''). Specifically, in accordance with the Dodd-Frank Act, the Commission is adopting rules to implement a framework for the real-time public reporting of swap transaction and pricing data for all swap transactions.