CFTC Commissioner O'Malia: CFTC Actions Are "Ad-Hoc," but Relief Will Provide More Reasonable Timeline for CME Market Participants

Commissioner O'Malia's states that the recent no-action letters and Q&As will provide temporary relief from the compliance deadlines and clarify regulations, although he criticizes the "ad-hoc" nature of the process. He describes the CFTC as having "promulgated thousands of pages of rulemakings in isolation and then resorting to this flurry of hurried staff interpretations in order to provide some measure of temporary comfort to the market."

A key quote from the statement: "By the end of the day Commission staff will have released 18 no-action letters and Q&As in an attempt to provide temporary relief from the compliance deadline and clarify inconsistent or vague regulations as they become effective. While this is a step in the right direction, the Commission should never have gotten to the point where it was forced to issue such last-minute piecemeal relief."

View statement in full here (links externally to CFTC website).