Title: 10-20
The Division of Market Oversight issued a letter granting no-action relief to permit the International Maritime Exchange ASA (Imarex or the Exchange) to make its electronic trading and order matching system (Trayport), and its Application Program Interface (API), available via direct access to Exchange trading members in the U.S. without obtaining contract market designation or registration as a derivatives transaction execution facility pursuant to Sections 5 and 5a of the CEAct. The relief applies to Imarex trading members in the U.S. that qualify as “eligible contract participants” (ECP) (as defined in Section 1a(12) of the CEAct) trading for their proprietary accounts; Imarex trading members that are registered as futures commission merchants (FCM) that submit orders to Trayport for execution from or on behalf of U.S. customers that qualify as ECPs; firms exempt from such registration pursuant to Commission Rule 30.10 (Rule 30.10 Firms) that accept orders through automated order routing systems for transmission to Trayport from or on behalf of U.S. customers that qualify as ECPs; and Imarex trading members that are registered as Commodity Pool Operators (CPO) or Commodity Trading Advisors (CTA), or exempt from such CPO or CTA registration pursuant to Commission Regulation 4.13 or 4.14, that submit orders for execution on behalf of U.S. pools they operate that qualify as ECPs or accounts of U.S. customers that qualify as ECPs, for which they have discretionary authority, respectively, provided that an FCM or Rule 30.10 Firm acts as clearing firm and guarantees without limitation all such trades of the CPO or CTA effected through submission of orders on Trayport.