June 25, 2012

CFTC Approves Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Prohibiting the Aggregation of Orders to Satisfy Minimum Block Sizes or Cap Size Requirements

Proposed Rulemaking also Establishes Eligibility Requirements for Parties to Block Trades

Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved for publication in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that re-proposes adding certain provisions to Part 43 of the Commission's Regulations pertaining to block trades in swap contracts. The provisions contained in the proposed rulemaking would:

• Prohibit the aggregation of orders for different trading accounts in order to satisfy the minimum block size or cap size requirements, except for orders aggregated by certain commodity trading advisors, investment advisers and foreign persons, if such qualifying persons have more than $25,000,000 in total assets under management;
• Provide that parties to a block trade must individually qualify as eligible contract participants, except where a designated contract market allows certain commodity trading advisors, investment advisers and foreign persons to transact block trades for customers who are not eligible contract participants, if such qualifying commodity trading advisor, investment adviser or foreign person has more than $25,000,000 in total assets under management; and
• Require that persons transacting block trades on behalf of customers must receive prior written instructions or consent from the customer.

The provisions were initially proposed in a December 7, 2010, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking pertaining to Real-Time Public Reporting of Swap Transaction Data (75 FR 76139).

The Commission invites the public and interested parties to comment on the proposed rulemaking. Comments should be submitted on or before 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Comments may be submitted electronically through the CFTC’s Comments Online Process (www.cftc.gov). All comments will be posted on the Commission’s website.

Last Updated: June 25, 2012