Releases: #4481-00
For Release:         December 21, 2000

CFTC ISSUES PARTIAL WITHDRAWAL OF
NEW REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

Washington -- The President signed the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 on December 21, 2000, which extensively revises the Commodity Exchange Act. As a result, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is withdrawing most of the new regulatory framework adopted last month and published in the Federal Register on December 13, 2000. The new regulatory framework contained new rules and amendments of existing rules concerning multilateral transaction execution facilities, market intermediaries, clearing organizations and swap agreements, which were to become effective on February 12, 2001. All of these rules and rule amendments are withdrawn, with the exception of amendments to the CFTC’s rule concerning the investment of customer funds by futures commission merchants and clearing organizations, Rule 1.25, and conforming amendments to related rules (Rules 1.20 and 1.26-1.29). The CFTC has also determined to accelerate the effective date of the amendments to Rule 1.25 and related rules to the date of publication of notices announcing these actions in the Federal Register, which is expected shortly.