Investment of Customer Funds by Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations

Résumé

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("Commission" or "CFTC") is proposing to amend its regulations governing the types of investments that futures commission merchants ("FCMs") and derivatives clearing organizations may make with funds held for the benefit of customers trading futures, foreign futures, and cleared swap transactions. The Commission is also specifying market risk capital charges that an FCM would be required to take on the revised permitted investments in computing the firm's adjusted net capital. The proposed amendments would also amend regulations that require each FCM to report to the Commission and to the firm's designated self-regulatory organization the name, location, and amount of customer funds held by each depository, including any investments of customer funds held by the depository. Lastly, the Commission is proposing to revise its regulations to eliminate the requirement that a depository holding customer funds must provide the Commission with read-only electronic access to such accounts for the FCM to treat the funds held in the accounts as customer segregated fund accounts.