Statement of CFTC Chairman Tim Massad on the upcoming open Meeting of the Commission

October 27, 2014

Washington, DC — U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Tim Massad made the following statement announcing a public meeting of the Commission on November 3, 2014.

“As directed by Congress, the CFTC is committed to ensuring that our rules to bring the derivatives markets out of the shadows do not impose unintended consequences on the nonfinancial commercial companies who were not responsible for the financial crisis. To that end, I am scheduling an open meeting of the Commission on Monday, November 3 to consider three matters that I would describe as further fine-tuning of our rules. These are not major changes, but they are significant in making sure that manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, and other companies that rely on the derivatives markets to hedge routine business risks can continue to use them efficiently and effectively. The first matter is to clarify our interpretation of when an agreement, contract, or transaction that contains embedded volumetric optionality falls within the forward exclusion from being considered a swap. The second pertains to our rules on when “residual interest” must be posted by futures commission merchants. That deadline is significant because it affects when customers must post margin. The deadline will become 6:00 pm on the settlement date as of November 14, 2014. The change we will consider on Monday is simply to say the deadline will not be moved earlier than 6:00 pm without Commission action and an opportunity for public comment. The third pertains to record keeping requirements under Commission regulation 1.35. We will consider whether to conform the text of the rule to no-action relief already granted by CFTC staff. I look forward to working with my fellow commissioners on these issues.”

Last Updated: October 27, 2014