The CFTC announced an order filing and settling charges against a longtime floor broker in the soybean commodity futures pit at the Chicago Board of Trade ("CBOT"). The charges included failing to comply with applicable recordkeeping and audit trail rules, creating trading records that contained fictitious information and were submitted for clearing belatedly, engaging in unauthorized trading, and failing to supervise employees of Futures International LLC, where the broker was a principal. The CFTC also filed a complaint against Futures International LLC Chief Operating Officer for similar

The CFTC granted the exemptive relief provided in CFTC Letter 14-49 to a CPO for additional proprietary funds listed in the letter. Specifically, the letter provides relief from the requirement in CFTC Rule 4.22(d) to have an independent public accountant audit the financial statements in the CPO's annual report. See: CFTC Letter 14-125. Related news: CFTC Issues No-Action Relief to CPOs from Reporting Requirements (CFTC Letters 14-48 and 14-49) (April 17, 2014).

The CFTC held a Global Markets Advisory Committee meeting that focused on issues relating to the mandatory clearing of FX non-deliverable forwards ("NDFs") and the digital currency bitcoin. In his opening statement, CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad stated that these topics of discussion are "both timely and important." Chairman Massad discussed the importance of working out cross-border issues on clearinghouse regulation and supervision, commenting that Europe should recognize CFTC-registered clearinghouses ("CCP") as equivalent, since they meet international standards. Regarding the CFTC's

The CFTC issued two nearly identical letters to ICE Clear Europe Limited ("ICE") and LCH.Clearnet Limited ("LCH") providing no-action relief for failing to obtain or provide the CFTC with an executed version of the template acknowledgement letter required by CFTC Rule 1.20(g)(4) for customer accounts maintained at the Bank of England ("BoE"). Instead, the relief allows ICE and LCH to use the Bank of England ("BoE") Acknowledgment Letter in place of the CFTC Template Letter. Additionally, the CFTC granted an exemption to ICE and LCH from the requirements of CFTC Rule 1.49(d)(3) that permits ICE

At a recent conference sponsored by SIFMA, U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") and IRS officials announced that additional guidance will be posted on the IRS website regarding requirements for self-certifications for financial institutions subject to Intergovernmental Agreements ("IGAs") under FATCA. The due diligence rules set forth under Annex I to the IGAs generally require account holders to "self-certify" their status under FATCA. Several deemed-compliant and exempt kinds of status under FATCA are not reflected on IRS Form W-8BEN-E; therefore, additional or alternative self