CFTC Staff Letters

Request for Interpretation of the Definition of “Commodity Pool” under Section 1a(10) of the Commodity Exchange Act.

Staff No-Action Relief: Preservation of the Regulatory Status Quo with Respect to Certain CEA Provisions That May Apply to FPA Section 201(f) Entities and Other Electric Cooperatives.

Staff No-Action Relief: Preservation of the Regulatory Status Quo with Respect to Certain CEA Provisions That May Apply to RTOs, ISOs, and/or Their Participants. (Extended by 13-05)

Division of Clearing and Risk staff issued a no action preserving the regulatory status quo with respect to swaps cleared by a DCO (and related) collateral which expires on the compliance date for Part 22 regulations, November 8, 2012.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Clearing and Risk (DCR) today announced an extension of time for compliance in order to provide additional time for market participants to coordinate on the communication of limits for give-ups and bunched orders for futures and swaps. This extension of time is intended to provide sufficient time to transition to fully compliant pre-trade screening no later than June 1, 2013. Additionally, DCR also announced the issuance of an extension of time for compliance from pre-trade screening requirements for those transactions executed on DCMs that do not have a system permitting FCMs to set pre-execution limits, until the earlier of the date on which the DCM implements such a system, or June 1, 2013.

The Division of Clearing and Risk issued a letter interpreting Regulation 39.13(g)(8)(ii) (customer margin rule) to clarify that registered derivatives clearing organizations, in establishing customer initial margin requirements, may preserve historical practices by which customer initial margin requirements are based on the type of customer account and reflect the application of prudential standards that result in FCMs collecting customer initial margin at levels commensurate with the risk presented by each type of customer account.

The Division of Market Oversight issued an interpretation addressing whether, under Part 151 of the Commission’s regulations, an electric company may treat as bona fide hedging transactions certain derivative transactions that reduce the price risk associated with its unfilled anticipated requirements for natural gas, even though it has entered into some long-term, firm purchases of natural gas at an unfixed price. The interpretation notes that unfilled anticipated requirements may be recognized as the basis of a bona fide hedging position or transaction under Commission Regulation 151.5(a)(2)(ii)(C) when a commercial enterprise has entered into long-term, unfixed-price supply or requirements contracts as the price risk of such “unfilled” anticipated requirements is not offset by an unfixed price forward contract as the price risk remains with the commercial, even though the commercial enterprise has contractually assured a supply of the commodity. Instead, the price risk continues until the forward contract’s price is fixed; once the price is fixed on the supply contract, the commercial enterprise no longer has price risk and the derivative position, to the extent the position is above an applicable speculative position limit, must be liquidated in an orderly manner in accordance with sound commercial practices.

Staff No-Action Relief: Temporary Relief for Persons Eligible for the Trade Option Exemption from the Requirements of §§ 32.3(b) and 32.3(c)(1), (3), (4) and (5) of the Commission’s Regulations.

Staff No-Action Relief: Temporary Relief from the Aggregation Requirements of the Commission’s Rule Regarding Position Limits for Futures and Swaps.

Staff No-Action Relief: Temporary Relief for Non-Clearing Member Swap Dealers from the Requirements of § 20.4 of the Commission’s Regulations Regarding Large Swaps Trader Reporting for Physical Commodities.