September 25, 2017

CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight Extends Existing Relief and Provides Additional Relief for Reporting Parties from Reporting Obligations as Required by the OCR Final Rule

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today issued a no-action letter (CFTC Staff Letter 17-45) that extends current relief and provides additional relief to reporting parties from reporting obligations as required by the ownership and control reports (OCR) final rule (OCR Final Rule).

The OCR Final Rule, approved in 2013, established requirements related to new ownership and control rules and related forms to enhance its identification of futures and swap market participants. The OCR Final Rule requires the electronic submission of trader identification and market participant data.

DMO is providing this substantive relief in an effort to address compliance difficulties associated with certain OCR reporting obligations that were identified by reporting parties and industry groups. The relief announced today extends the following relief previously provided under CFTC Letter No. 16-32 (April 8, 2016):

• two additional days to accurately report a trading account owner’s and volume threshold account (VTA) owner’s name;
• relief from reporting certain trading account controller (TAC) and volume threshold account controller (VTAC) identifying information;
• relief relating to rating the quality of the information provided to a reporting party by its customers or counterparties;
• replacing a 50 contract threshold for reporting certain data with a 250 contract threshold; and
• relief from reporting on Form 102S certain omnibus account originator and consolidated account (CA) owner information (conditioned on electronically reporting instead CA counterparty information).

In addition, the letter also announces the following new relief:

• relief from reporting additional TAC and VTAC identifying information (conditioned on DMO being able to obtain TAC-identifying information from the special account controller and VTAC-identifying information from the VTA owner or the reporting firm);
• relief from refresh updates of Forms 102A, 102B and 102S (conditioned on filing timely and complete change updates);
• relief permitting using the same contact information for all 10% owners and parent companies (Identified Party) on question 8 on Forms 40 and 40S (conditioned on the means of communication provided being monitored by a person or persons who promptly upon request provide(s) contact information for a representative of the relevant Identified Party authorized to discuss OCR information with CFTC staff);
• relief from answering question 12 on Forms 40 and 40S regarding those who have direct or indirect influence on or exercise authority over, but not control of, a reporting party’s trading; and
• relief from filing change updates for Forms 40 or 40S other than in response to a special call pursuant to §§ 18.04 or 20.5(b).

The relief provided in CFTC Letter 17-45 will remain in effect until the earlier of: (a) the later of the applicable effective date or compliance date of a Commission action, such as a rulemaking or order, addressing such obligation and (b) September 28, 2020. DMO plans to use the current relief period to consider whether to recommend that the CFTC pursue changes to the OCR Final Rule.

More detailed information on the mechanics of reporting as required by the OCR Final Rule and other relevant OCR Final Rule implementation information will be provided during the relief period at Ownership and Control Reporting (OCR). Parties with reporting obligations under the OCR Final Rule should also review CFTC Letter 17-16 (March 10, 2017), which provides additional no-action relief regarding the masking of certain information reportable under the OCR Final Rule.

Last Updated: September 26, 2017