SIFMA and FSR Submit Comments to the CFTC on Amendments to Implement the JOBS Act

SIFMA and the Financial Services Roundtable (FSR) submitted a letter to the CFTC requesting interpretive guidance to harmonize certain exemptions relating to CPOs and CTAs with proposed amendments implementing the JOBS Act. In short, the industry wants the CFTC to amend its rules so that private placements for purposes of the Securities Act as amended by the JOBS Act will also be treated as private placements for purposes of the CFTC Rules. (Without such relief, many hedge funds and institutional pools would effectively remain subject to the Pre-JOBS Act limitations on the conduct of securities offerings, as taking advantage of the new marketing rules would subject them to regulation as a public commodity pool.) Failure by the CFTC to grant the requested relief, according to the letter, may hinder the goals of job creation and economic growth that lie at the heart of the JOBS Act.

Cross-Reference(s): CFTC Rules 4.7 [Exemption from Certain Part 4 Requirements for Commodity Pool Operators with Respect to Offerings to Qualified Eligible Persons and for Commodity Trading Advisors with Respect to...] and 4.13(a)(3) [Exemption From Registration as a Commodity Pool Operator].

View letter in full here (links to SIFMA website).