The CFTC issued an order requesting comments on a rule amendment certification filing by ICE Futures US. ICE Futures US proposes to adopt a new method of estimation for the deliverable supply on which position limits would be based for eight of their New York Independent System Operator ("NYISO") Zone G electric power futures contracts. The CFTC requests public comments because the submission from ICE Futures US contains an inadequate explanation of the subject rule amendment and may be inconsistent with the CEA. The CFTC is asking commenters to address issues listed in the order requesting

Energy Metro Desk editor-in-chief John Sodergreen writes that "wholesale" changes to Dodd-Frank or "any other big financial re-reform" are unlikely given the current political climate and upcoming election year. The SEC and CFTC will continue to focus on "tweaks and fixes" and there will be continued jockeying between the GOP and White House to fill the final seat on the CFTC. Briefly, Mr. Sodergreen discusses the delayed closure of certain CME futures pits due to an "11th-hour legal challenge" from a small group of traders. Lawyers for the group of traders sent a letter to the CFTC requesting

The CFTC issued six no-action letters that provide exemptive relief to Commodity Pool Operators ("CPOs") from reporting and disclosure requirements. Letter 15-39 provides exemptive relief to the CPO of several pools, which are organized in a three-level master-feeder structure, from the audit requirements of CFTC Rule 4.22(d) with respect to the financial statements in the 2014 annual pool reports. The relief is conditioned on the CPO filing, within 90 calendar days after the end of the pools' fiscal year 2014, an annual report for fiscal year 2014 that complies with all applicable CFTC rules

The SEC charged Luca International Group ("Luca International") and its CEO with running a Ponzi-like scheme and affinity fraud that targeted the Chinese-American community in California and investors in Asia, many of whom were solicited as part of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. According to the SEC complaint, Luca International conducted seminars for investors at the company's offices and hotel conference rooms. The seminars targeted investors in the Chinese-American community through advertisements in Chines e-language television, radio and newspaper outlets. The SEC alleged that Luca

ISDA launched a tender process to select a third party to build and operate a crowdsourcing utility for the ISDA Standard Initial Margin Model ("ISDA SIMM TM"). The crowdsourcing utility is being developed as part of the ISDA Working Group on Margining Requirements initiative. The utility is intended "to aggregate and compile risk data to enable market participants to implement the ISDA SIMM TM consistently." According to ISDA, the utility would provide value by, among other things, allowing its users to utilize the results of a consensus rather than the users' own internal determination of