Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced approval of final rules to amend its large trading reporting regulations for futures and options. These regulations require futures commission merchants, clearing members, foreign brokers, and certain reporting markets (reporting firms) to report to the Commission position information for the largest futures and options traders.

The final rules replace the data elements currently enumerated in the CFTC’s regulations with an appendix specifying applicable data elements. The final rules also provide for the publication of a separate Part 17 Guidebook specifying the form and manner for reporting. In addition, the final rules remove the outdated 80-character data submission standard in the CFTC’s regulations. That standard will be replaced by a FIXML standard, as set out in the Part 17 Guidebook.

“These amendments will modernize the CFTC’s large trader position reporting and align it with other reporting structures set out in the CFTC’s regulations,” said Vince McGonagle, Director of the Division of Market Oversight.

The final rules are effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. Reporting firms must comply with the final rules two years after publication in the Federal Register.

The Part 17 Guidebook is available here and here on CFTC.gov.