The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued an exemptive letter that provides relief regarding the filing of CFTC Form CPO-PQR for those CPOs that are registered but have no reporting obligations under Part 4 of CFTC Rules. According to the letter, DSIO granted the relief because the requirement that CPOs which only operate pools, pursuant to CFTC Rule 4.5 or 4.13(a)(3), report on Form CPO-PQR would provide limited additional information beyond that which is already available to the CFTC as part of the registration process and the CPO's ongoing obligations as a

The CFTC Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight ("DSIO") issued an exemptive letter that provides relief from certain provisions of CFTC Rules 4.7(b) and 4.13(a)(3) which restrict marketing to the public. The letter permits the CPO to a private fund to advertise its offering of the fund broadly, to the extent permitted by the JOBS Act amendments to the Securities Act, without becoming subject to the full scope of CPO regulation. The letter harmonizes Rule 4.7(b) and Rule 4.13(a)(3) under the CEA with both Rule 506(c) of Regulation D and Rule 144A under the Securities Act, which, as

The CFTC announced the filing and settling of charges against Zulutrade, Inc., a CFTC-registered introducing broker located in Greece, for failing to follow procedures for screening account holders from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control's ("OFAC") targeted countries. OFAC administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries based on U.S. foreign policy. According to the CFTC Order, Zulutrade had a procedure to screen potential account holders from OFAC's targeted countries, which provided that Zulutrade could delegate the

The CFTC filed a civil enforcement complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against an attorney whom the CFTC alleges to have willfully aided and abetted multiple clients in their operation of illegal and fraudulent previous metals schemes in violation of the CEA. The CFTC Complaint alleges that the relevant transactions should have been executed on a CFTC-regulated exchange, and that the parties to the transactions never actually owned, possessed or sold any physical metals and so did not qualify for exemption from the exchange-trading requirement. See: CFTC

The MSRB proposal to add Rule G-18, which would establish the explicit requirement that municipal securities dealers seek the most favorable price possible when executing transactions for retail investors, was published in the Federal Register. The proposal also includes amendments to Rule G-48 ("Transactions with Sophisticated Municipal Market Professionals") and Rule D-15 ("Sophisticated Municipal Market Professional"). The MSRB requested that the proposed rule change be approved with an implementation date one year after the SEC approval date. Comments on the proposal are due by September