All CFTC articles – Page 11
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Blog
EPA, CFTC agree to share data
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding that allows the agencies to share Renewable Fuel Standard data and analysis, including proprietary business information. Sharing this information, the agreement says, will allow the CFTC to assist the EPA with investigations into ...
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Blog
CFTC approves substituted compliance framework with EU
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved a substituted compliance framework for dually-registered central counterparties, located in both the United States and European Union. European CCPs registered with the CFTC can now comply with its rules by meeting corresponding European Market Infrastructure Regulation requirements.
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Blog
CFTC Still Waiting for Its Whistleblower Program to Bear Significant Results
After four years, the CFTC has so far paid out just two whistleblower awards totaling $530,000 while incurring millions of dollars in expenses. The agency’s inspector general stated recently that it has opened a review to “to determine the reason, if any, for the limited number of CFTC whistleblower awards ...
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J.P. Morgan to Pay SEC and CFTC $307 million for Disclosure Violations
Two JP Morgan wealth management subsidiaries today agreed to pay a total of $307 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in joint enforcement actions for failure to disclose conflicts of interest to clients. Both the CFTC and SEC charged J.P. Morgan Securities (JPMS) ...
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CFTC offers up cyber-security rules, margin requirements
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking to amend existing regulations regarding cyber-security testing and safeguards for the automated systems used by the firms it regulates. New rules would specify testing frequency requirements and require covered firms to have certain tests performed by independent contractors. In a separate matter, it ...
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CFTC Brings First Insider-Trading Case
Until last week, the CFTC had never brought an insider-trading case for commodities trading. Indeed, the only example of insider commodities trading that most lawyers (or anyone else) could probably point to would be the ill-fated effort of the Duke brothers in the Eddie Murphy movie Trading Places. Four years ...
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CFTC Makes it Official: Bitcoin is a Commodity
Bitcoin, the controversial virtual currency vexing financial regulators, is now officially a commodity—at least in the eyes of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. On Thursday, with the CFTC’s first ever enforcement action against an unregistered Bitcoin options trading platform, the agency designated the virtual currency, and potentially others like it, ...
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Article
How Can Compliance Manage Chat Risks? That’s Tough
Image: As the financial sector embraces the speed and efficiency of instant messaging services, compliance officers have a new challenge: how to detect misconduct in real time, not in e-discovery after the fact. Vendors are rushing in with new products; the bad news is that regulators are looking into “chat ...
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SEC Sets Swap Dealer Registrations, 'Bad Actor' Waiver Battle Looms
The easy part: adopting new rules and a process for the registration of security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants. More controversial, is a new proposal, announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, to give swap dealers the ability to do business with individuals and firms convicted ...
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Volcker Offers Sweeping New Reform Ideas
Image: Paul Volcker, the famed former Fed chairman and namesake of the most controversial rule in the Dodd-Frank Act, is proposing a slate of financial reform proposals that would merge the SEC and CFTC and create new regulatory agencies. The Volcker Alliance—a non-partisan, non-profit organization launched in 2013—issued a report ...
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CFTC Case Against Kraft Puts Cos. on Hedge
Image: A novel interpretation of the Dodd-Frank Act is rattling buyers of raw materials. The Commodities Futures Trading Commission is moving against Kraft Foods for a big bet in the wheat market, using a section of Dodd-Frank everyone previously assumed was intended to curb high-frequency traders. “The case shows that ...
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Blog
CFTC Gives CCOs Extra 30 Days to File Annual Reports
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will give compliance officers an additional 30 days to file the annual reports required of swap dealers and major swap participants. The reports—which include an assessment of compliance resources and challenges—were initially due within 60 days of the fiscal year’s end. More inside.
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Blog
CFTC Outlines Expectations for New Annual Reports from CCOs
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently shed more light on the new annual reports that compliance officers at swaps dealers must now provide. The CFTC guidance outlines expectations for assessing a firm’s written policies and procedures, including the code of ethics and conflict-of-interest policies. Shortcomings must be explained in detail, ...
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Budget Bill Targets Dodd-Frank’s Derivatives Restrictions
Dec. 10—Seeking to avoid another government shutdown, the House has approved the fiscal year 2015 Omnibus Appropriations bill, legislation that will provide discretionary funding for the vast majority of the federal government for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Notable inclusions in the bill—now before the Senate—are a $150 ...
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Blog
Toyota Motor Credit Probed for Lending Discrimination
The Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month launched an investigation against Toyota Motor Credit over allegations of auto-lending discrimination practices, Toyota announced in a recent Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. According to the agencies, “such practices resulted in discriminatory pricing of loans ...
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CFTC Dives Back into Position Limits, Reopens Comment Period
Image: Dec. 2—The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is once again girding for battle over a controversial plan to impose position limits on futures contracts. On Dec. 3, notice was published in the Federal Register to announce the reopening of a public comment period on rulemaking that was put on hold ...
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Banks Fined $4.3 Billion in Foreign-Exchange Probe
In a highly-anticipated series of settlements, regulators from the United Kingdom, United States, and Switzerland today slapped six banks with a total of $4.3 billion in fines to resolve charges that they manipulated the foreign exchange currency-trading market. JPMorgan and Citibank will pay the largest total in fines of $1 ...
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Article
What SEC Rulemaking Generates the Most Buzz?
What rule proposals and petitions before the SEC attract the most comment letters? Not surprisingly, investors and their advocates flooded the SEC’s mailbox with form letters supporting measures such as enhanced whistleblower protections and disclosure of political contributions. Less feedback came from corporate representatives concerned with new rules on the ...