CFTC Staff Letter 07-21: No-Action Relief for OMX Stockholm VINX30 Futures Contract

U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW, Washington, DC 20581
Telephone: (202) 418-5120
Facsimile: (202) 418-5524
Office of General Counsel

CFTC letter No. 07-21
November 13, 2007
No-Action
Office of General Counsel

Henrik Paulsson
Head of OMX Derivatives Markets
OMX AB
SE-105 78 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Re: OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB’s Request for a No-Action Letter in Connection with the Offer and Sale in the United States of its Futures Contract Based on the VINX30 Index Dear Mr. Paulsson:
This letter is in response to letters, attachments, facsimiles and electronic mail dated from December 21, 2006 to July 9, 2007, requesting on behalf of OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm AB (“OMX Stockholm”) that the Office of General Counsel (“Office”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“Commission” or "CFTC") issue a “no-action” letter concerning the offer and sale in the United States (“U.S.”) of OMX Stockholm’s futures contract based on the VINX30 Index (“VINX30” or “Index”). We understand the facts to be as follows. OMX Stockholm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of OMX Exchanges, Ltd., which in turn is a wholly-owned subsidiary of OMX AB (“OMX”). OMX Stockholm is authorized as an exchange in Sweden to trade securities and derivatives and is licensed to carry out clearing operations by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Swedish: Finansinspektionen, “FI”).1 As a regulated exchange and clearing house, OMX Stockholm is under the supervision of and subject to active market surveillance by FI. FI is responsible for authorization, supervision and monitoring of all companies operating in the 1 OMX Stockholm underwent a name change effective July 1, 2007. Previously, OMX Stockholm was known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Ltd. (“SSE”). See electronic mail from Gila Mörée, Legal Counsel, OMX to Julian E. Hammar, Assistant General Counsel, CFTC, dated July 2, 2007. This Office issued a letter on April 17, 2007, confirming that no-action relief granted in 1998 to SSE, then known as OM Stock Exchange AB, applied to SSE’s standardized futures contract based on the OMXS30 Index. See CFTC Staff Letter No. 07-04, [2005-2007 Transfer Binder] Comm. Fut. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶ 30,498 (April 17, 2007). See also CFTC Staff Letter No. 98-41, [1996-1998 Transfer Binder] Comm. Fut. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶ 27,364 (June 3, 1998).