Commodities

On March 31, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) announced the release of a targeted, temporary no-action letter aimed at foreign affiliates of futures commission merchants (FCMs).  This relief is meant to ease regulatory burdens in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic.  In short, the relief relaxes restrictions on CFTC registrants’ affiliated foreign brokers by allowing them to address the needs of the registrants’ U.S.-based customers without having to register as introducing brokers.   The CFTC has now issued four waves of no-action relief.  It issued the first two waves on March 17, 2020, and a third wave three days later.

Continue Reading CFTC Announces Fourth Wave of No-Action Relief in Response to COVID-19

This week, on March 17, 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) released two announcements (see here and here) regarding a series of no-action letters in response to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.  The CFTC’s announcements come in the wake of high-profile efforts by other financial regulators to quickly address the financial and regulatory

On August 14, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a consent order (the “Consent Order”)—agreed to by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”), Kraft Foods Group Inc. (“Kraft”) and Mondelēz Global LLC (“Mondelēz”)—to resolve long-running market manipulation litigation between the parties.

Continue Reading CFTC Settles Wheat Manipulation Case against Kraft and Mondelēz