CFTC Extends No-Action Relief from OCR Reporting Obligations (CFTC Letter 15-52)

The CFTC Division of Market Oversight ("DMO") provided additional time-limited no-action relief to Futures Industry Association ("FIA") members that are required to submit reports under Parts 17 ("Reports by Reporting Markets, Futures Commission Merchants, Clearing Members and Foreign Brokers"), 18 ("Reports by Traders") and 20("Large Trader Reporting for Physical Commodity Swaps") of CFTC regulations. The no-action relief concerns certain reporting obligations required by the "Ownership and Control" Final Rule. DMO issued this no-action relief to provide reporting parties additional time to improve the reliability and consistency of the OCR data provided to the Commission. CFTC Letter 15-52 provides time-limited no-action relief for reporting parties from the requirement to file the forms electronically and provide certain additional information required by the OCR Final Rule.

Pursuant to the latest OCR no-action relief, the CFTC extended the compliance date for reporting entities to submit new ownership and control forms to the CFTC as follows:

In the interim, reporting entities must continue to submit legacy forms to the CFTC as well as engage in testing of production-grade data. Moreover, the CFTC reminded market participants that compliance with the recordkeeping obligations under Rule 18.05 is already required.

The DMO noted that its staff is also considering whether it is appropriate to offer additional time-limited no-action relief with respect to the OCR Final Rule such as (i) relief from reporting a subset of data points associated with trading account controllers; (ii) relief from reporting certain information that may be subject to foreign privacy laws; or (iii) modifications to the reportable trading volume level established in CEA Rule 15.04 ("Reportable Trading Volume Level").

Although CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo expressed support for this specific extension of no-action relief, he stressed that the CFTC "must end the prolonged uncertainty fostered by multiple extensions of no-action relief" by resolving the issues raised in the FIA's rule petition.