CFTC Staff Letter 19-20: No-Action Relief from CPO Registration for Entity A

CFTC Letter No. 19-20 No-Action May 07, 2019
Division of Swap Dealer and Matthew B. Kulkin
Intermediary Oversight Director
May 7, 2019
RE: Request For No-Action Relief from the Requirement to Register as a Commodity Pool Operator under Section 4m(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act Dear :
This is in response to your letter, dated February 19, 2019, to the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (the “Division”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission” or the “CFTC”). In the letter, you request, on behalf of “A” that “A” receive relief from the requirement to register with the Commission as a commodity pool operator (a “CPO”) under section 4m(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act (the “Act”) 1 in connection with its role as manager of “B” (the “Pool”). Instead, you state that “A” will delegate certain of its responsibilities as the CPO of the Pools to “C” pursuant to the applicable requirements of CFTC Staff Letter No. 14-126 (“Letter 14-126”), 2 except for criterion 6 therein as discussed below. Background On May 12, 2014, the Division issued CFTC Staff Letter No. 14-69 (“Letter 14-69”), 3 which was in response to numerous requests asking that the Division provide no-action relief for failure to register as a CPO under section 4m(1) of the Act, if another person would serve as the registered CPO of the commodity pool at issue (the “Designated CPO”) in lieu of the requesting CPO (the “Delegating CPO”). Letter 14-69 developed a standardized, streamlined approach