The staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued no-action relief for certain Regulation 1.35(a) recordkeeping requirements. The relief is granted to commodity trading advisors (CTAs) registered with the CFTC that are also members of a designated contract market or swap execution facility (SEF) from Rule 1.35(a)’s oral record keeping requirements.
The relief also relieves all market participants covered by Rule 1.35(a) from linking oral and written communications leading to the execution of a commodity interest transaction and related cash or forward transactions with any particular transaction.
Washington D.C based Managed Funds Association (MFA) who represents the global alternative investment industry stated on their website they had previously raised the need for a CTA exclusion from Rule 1.35(a) in a letter of July 30, 2014, to CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad and each of the other Commissioners.
Today’s relief is effective immediately and will last through December 31, 2015, or the effective date of any CFTC action on its proposed rulemaking to amend Rule 1.35(a), whichever date is earlier. This relief extends and expands on prior time-limited no-action relief issued by CFTC staff earlier this year, which would have expired at the end of this month.
To read the CFTC’s official release on this issue, click here.