CFTC Staff Letters Archive

CFTC Staff Letters Archive provides Letters from 2007 and earlier. For Letters published 2008 or later visit the All Letters page.

There are no Advisory Letters or Other Written Communications for 2007 or earlier.

Date	PDF and Description
12/18/1995	96-07 ; Rule 1.57;; No-Action The Division adopted a no-action position with respect to a guaranteed introducing broker (GIB) and the guarantor futures commission merchant (GFCM) notwithstanding the fact that the GFCM would not necessarily be carrying and clearing all of the GIB's trades. Commission Rule 1.57 generally requires the GFCM to carry all of the GIB's customer accounts. In reaching this position, the Division noted, inter alia, that the GFCM had sufficient adjusted net capital and excess net capital to meet all of the GIB's obligations and that the GFCM agreed to be jointly and severally liable for all obligations of the GIB regardless of whether they were carried and cleared through the GFCM.
12/15/1995	95-110 ; Section 2(a);; No-Action No-Action letter allowing the Singapore International Monetary Exchange futures contract based on the Nikkei Stock Index 3 00 to be offered or sold in the United States.
12/13/1995	96-08; ; Section 4m(l);; No-Action Two offshore firms were granted CPO and CTA registration relief in connection with their operational and advisory activities in a U.S. pool, where among other things: (1) each of the approximately four investors will be a large federal or state regulated financial institution, or an affiliate thereof; (2) the minimum investment will be $100 million; (3) only proprietary funds will be invested; and (4) the fund through which the pool will trade commodity interests is operated by a registered CPO.
12/11/1995	96-06; ; Rule 4.21, 4.22, 4.23(a)(10) and (11); and Rule 4.7(a);; No-Action Subject to certain conditions, the Division of Trading and Markets exempted a CPO from the reporting and recordkeeping requirements of Rules 4.21, 4.22 and 4.23(a)(10) and (11) in connection with its operation of a Fund in which all investors would be professional level employees of the CPO. The Fund would invest all its assets in a Rule 4.7-exempt pool (investee pool) operated by the CPO, the Fund investors would be involved in the operation of this investee pool. Among other things, the CPO agreed to provide employees who invest in the Fund with the periodic and annual reports of the investee pool and with an annual statement from the auditors of the investee pool stating the value of the Fund's investment therein; to allow investors access to books and records of the Fund and the investee pool; and to assure that the value of an individual employee's investment in the Fund did not exceed certain limits stated in terms of the employees yearly earnings from the CPO and overall net-worth. Finally, the Division granted no-action relief so that the investee pool could continue to invest more than ten percent of its assets in other Rule 4.7-exempt pools, although the Fund would not qualify as a QEP.
12/11/1995	96-02; ; Rule 4.10(d)(1);; No-Action The Division of Trading and Markets stated that a voluntary, non-contributory benefit plan established by a futures exchange ("Exchange") to reward certain of its members would not be a commodity pool as defined by Commission regulations and therefore neither the Board of Directors of the Exchange nor any designee thereof would have to register as a CPO in connection with the operation of the plan.
12/05/1995	95-40 ; Rule 4.7;; No-Action A CPO may claim Rule 4.7 relief for a pool, where a trust, one of the participants in the pool, is not a QEP, but one of the two trustees is a QEP, provided that the trustees consent to the trust being treated as a QEP, and that the CPO files notice of a claim for exemption under Rule 4.7 and otherwise complies with the rule
11/30/1995	95-105; ; Rule 4.21(e)(2);; No-Action The Division permitted a registered CPO to continue using a pool's Disclosure Document for nine months from the date of the Document, instead of the six months provided in former Rule 4.21(e)(2), where (1) the pool was publicly offered pursuant to a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission; (2) the pool's Disclosure Document was prepared in accordance with the Commission's former Part 4 rules; and (3) the Disclosure Document was filed with the Commission prior to the August 24, 1995, effective date of the Commission's revisions to the Part 4 CPO/CTA disclosure regulations. The adopting release for the Part 4 revisions provided that the Disclosure Documents prepared under the former Part 4 rules and filed prior to August 24, 1995, could be used for the six-month period of the former rules.
11/29/1995	95-109 ; CEA Section 4m(1), Rule 4.14(a)(8);; No-Action The Division took a "no-action" position with respect to failure to register as a CPO by a Luxembourg management company operating three identical Luxembourg investment funds (the "Funds") and failures to register as a CTA by the U.S. registered investment adviser providing commodity interest trading advice to the Funds, notwithstanding that (1) the Luxembourg management company was 99.98% owned by the U.S. investment adviser, and (2) several directors of the management company were U.S. persons and principals of the U.S. investments adviser and/or the adviser's U.S. parent. The Funds were marketed and sold exclusively to non-U.S. persons, all activities of the Funds were conducted outside of the U.S., no U.S. source provided capital to any of the Funds, none of the management company's U.S. directors engaged in or supervised commodity interest trading, none of the directors was subject to statutory disqualification, and the Funds would be operated in a manner consistent with Rule 4.5(c) (2). Continuing exemption under Rule 4.14 (a) (8) was granted to the U.S. investment adviser notwithstanding that providing commodity interest trading advice to the Funds would be inconsistent with Rule 4.14(a) (8)'s requirement to restrict advice to entities excluded from the "pool" definition, or which are qualifying entities under Rule 4.5.
11/27/1995	95-108 ; 4m(1) of the Act Rule 4.23;; No-Action Certain Directors not required to register as CPOs in connection with their operation of a Pool where, among other things: (1) Pool's Operator is a director of the Pool and will be registered as a CPO; (2) the Pool will be operated in compliance with Rule 4.7; (3) the non-registered Directors are "non-United States persons" except for two college professors who serve as Directors to aid in compliance with the Investment Advisers Act of 1940; (4) the Directors delegate to the Pool's Operator responsibility for the Pool's commodity interest-related activities and soliciting investors for the Pool; and (5) the Directors and the Operators are jointly and severally liable for any violations of the Act or the Commission's regulations thereunder. The Division also granted the Operator relief from certain requirements of Rule 4.23 with respect to the location of original books and records.
11/27/1995	95-102; ; Rules 4.21, 4.22 and 4.23(a)(10) and (a)(11);; No-Action A registered commodity pool operator is exempt from the requirements of Rules 4.21, 4.2 2 and 4.23(a)(10) and (a)(11), where all of the pool's participants are related to the CPO, subject to the conditions that: (a) the CPO file an Annual Report for 1995 because during that year the pool had participants who were unrelated to the CPO and (b) no unrelated persons participate in the pool.