CFTC Staff Letters

The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight granted no-action relief to a commodity pool operator (“CPO”) of three funds (a publicly-traded Parent, a Subsidiary that is approximately 99% owned by the Parent and approximately 1% owned by fund insiders, and a Trading Vehicle wholly-owned by the Subsidiary) from: (1) Filing with the National Futures Association (“NFA”) and distributing to the insider participants of the Subsidiary an audited annual report of the Subsidiary; (2) Distributing periodic statements of the Subsidiary to the insider participants of the Subsidiary; (3) Filing with NFA an audited annual report of the Trading Vehicle; and (4) Filing with NFA Form CPO-PQR for the Parent. This relief allows the CPO to prepare one audited annual report at the Parent-level and one Form CPO-PQR at the Subsidiary-level for the entire fund complex.

The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight granted no-action relief from the registration requirement of Section 4m(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act to a commodity pool operator (“CPO”) of a pool, the investors of which are the owner of the general partner and CPO of the pool, his family investment vehicle, and his close business associates who were involved in developing the pool’s trading algorithm.

DSIO is issuing conditional no-action relief permitting a provisionally registered swap dealer to satisfy certain of its requirements under Rule 3.3 by reporting to, and interacting with, the “governing body,” rather than the senior officer or board of directors, subject to certain conditions.

DSIO is issuing an extension of a previous no-action letter providing additional time for futures commission merchants (FCMs) to comply with Commission regulations requiring FCMs to obtain acknowledgement letters from certain depositories. DSIO will provide no-action relief until April 30, 2015.

The Division of Clearing and Risk extended the no-action relief granted in CFTC Letter 14-27 to Eurex Clearing and its U.S. clearing members with regard to Sections 5b(a) and 2(h)(1)(A) of the Commodity Exchange Act. The time-limited no-action relief is subject to several conditions.

In extending the no-action relief granted in CFTC Letter 13-73, the Division of Clearing and Risk (“Division”) will not recommend that the Commission take enforcement action against (i) Japan Securities Clearing Corporation (“JSCC”) for failure to register as a derivatives clearing organization (“DCO”) pursuant to the requirements of Section 5b(a) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), or (ii) any qualified clearing participant of JSCC, or a parent or affiliate of such clearing participant, for failure to clear a Japanese yen-denominated interest rate swap that is required to be cleared under Section 2(h)(1)(A) of the CEA, through a registered or exempt DCO. The no-action relief is subject to several conditions.

Extension of time to furnish the 2014 annual report to the Commission.

DSIO guidance to chief compliance officers of FCMs, SDs, and MSPs on how to comply with the requirement under Commission Regulation 3.3(e) to prepare an annual report.

Subject to specific conditions, the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight granted the operators of issuers of insurance-linked securities no-action relief, such that an operator may be exempt from registration as a commodity pool operator pursuant to Regulation 4.13(a)(3) with respect to insurance-linked securities transactions in which an issuer engages.

Extension of time-limited no-action relief for OTC Clearing Hong Kong Limited with regard to Section 5b(a) of the Commodity Exchange Act and implementing regulations thereunder.