2015-10-02 | 2015-25029The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued a final rule to remove Part 36 of its regulations and various cross-references in other parts to eliminate obsolete provisions for Exempt Commercial Markets and Exempt Boards of Trade. This action conforms the Commission's regulations to the Commodity Exchange Act as amended by the Dodd-Frank Act, which repealed the statutory categories for these exempt trading platforms. The rulemaking is ministerial and procedural, ensuring regulatory consistency by removing vestigial references that no longer have legal effect under current law.
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 191 / Friday, October 2, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 59575 1Public Law 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (July 21, 2010). 2Pursuant to Section 701 of the Dodd-Frank Act, Title VII may be cited as the ‘‘Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010.’’ 3 7 U.S.C. 1 et seq. (2012). 4 Dodd-Frank Act Section 733 (amending the CEA to add new section 5h). 5Public Law 106–554, 114 Stat. 2763 (December 21, 2000). 6See CFMA Section 101(4) (amending CEA to add definition of ‘‘Exempt Commodity,’’ currently codified as CEA Section 1(a)(20), 7 U.S.C. 1a(20) (2012). 7 ‘‘Excluded Commodity’’ is also a statutorily defined term, currently codified as CEA Section 1(a)(19), 7 U.S.C. 1a(19) (2012). Generally characterized, the term captures, among other things specified financial instruments, measures, and indexes (e.g., securities and security indexes, currencies, interest rates, debt instruments, and credit ratings); any ‘‘other rate, differential, index, or measure of economic or commercial risk, return or value’’ not substantially based on the value of a narrow commodity group or solely based on a commodity or commodities with no cash value; and other economic or commercial indexes, or occurrences and contingencies associated with an economic consequence, beyond the control of parties to the relevant contract, agreement or transaction. 8The definition of ‘‘Eligible Commercial Entity’’ is found in Section 1a(17) of the CEA. 7 U.S.C. 1a(17) (2006). 9The Commission’s part 36 regulations established similar requirements for EBOTs. 10The definition of ‘‘Eligible Contract Participant’’ is found in Section 1a(18) of the CEA, 7 U.S.C. 1a(18) (2012). 11The Commission’s Part 36 regulations established similar requirements for ECMs. 12The Dodd-Frank Act amended Section 2(h) of the CEA effective July 16, 2011, H.R. 4173, Section 723(a)(1), Public Law 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376, by striking existing subsection (h)—‘‘Transactions in exempt commodities’’ and inserting new subsection (h)—‘‘Clearing requirement’’ not addressed to exempt commercial markets. 13The Dodd-Frank Act repealed Section 5d of the CEA effective July 16, 2011, H.R. 4173, Section 734(a), Public Law 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). 14ECMs and EBOTs were permitted to continue operations until July 16, 2012 pursuant to a grandfather relief order issued by the Commission pursuant to Sections 723(c)(2)(B) and 734(c)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act, respectively. 15 75 FR 56513 (September 16, 2010). 206–544–5000, extension 1; fax 206–766– 5680; Internet https:// www.myboeingfleet.com. (4) You may view this service information at FAA, Transport Airplane Directorate, 1601 Lind Avenue SW., Renton, WA. For information on the availability of this material at the FAA, call 425–227–1221. (5) You may view this service information that is incorporated by reference at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call 202–741–6030, or go to: http:// www.archives.gov/federal-register/cfr/ibrlocations.html. Issued in Renton, Washington, on September 16, 2015. Michael Kaszycki, Acting Manager, Transport Airplane Directorate, Aircraft Certification Service. [FR Doc. 2015–24677 Filed 10–1–15; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 4910–13–P COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION 17 CFR Parts 15, 18, 36, 40, 140 RIN 3038–AE10 Repeal of the Exempt Commercial Market and Exempt Board of Trade Exemptions AGENCY: Commodity Futures Trading Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the ‘‘Commission’’) is taking final action to revise its regulations by removing the part 36 regulations. Those regulations implemented provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act (‘‘CEA’’) that established exempt boards of trade and exempt commercial markets—two categories of derivatives-trading platforms that were eliminated from the CEA by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the ‘‘Dodd-Frank Act’’). This action also removes various cross-references in other Commission regulations implicating exempt boards of trade and exempt commercial markets. DATES: This rulemaking is effective on October 2, 2015. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581; Dana R. Brown, Division of Market Oversight, telephone (202) 418– 5093 and email dbrown@cftc.gov. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Background On July 21, 2010, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act into law. 1 Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Act 2 amended the CEA 3 to establish a comprehensive framework for the regulation of over-the-counter derivatives, also known as swaps. Among other reforms, Title VII requires that any person who operates a facility to trade swaps register as a designated contract market (‘‘DCM’’) or a swap execution facility (‘‘SEF’’); 4 the latter is a category of trading market newly established under the law. Concurrently, Title VII eliminated from the CEA two categories of exempt markets for the trading of derivatives originally established in the CEA by the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (‘‘CFMA’’): 5 exempt commercial markets (‘‘ECMs’’) and exempt boards of trade (‘‘EBOTs’’). Under the CFMA’s revisions to the CEA, ECMs could trade exempt commodities 6 (i.e. any commodity other than an excluded commodity 7 and agricultural commodities) on electronic trading facilities between eligible commercial entities 8 without complying with comprehensive designation criteria and core principles that were applicable to designated contract markets. A facility that elected to operate as an ECM was generally exempt from regulation, but was still required to comply with certain informational and recordkeeping requirements, if the market satisfied the conditions for the exemption found in Sections 2(h)(3) through (5) of the CEA, 7 U.S.C. 2(h)(3)–(5), including a requirement that the ECM notify the Commission of its intent to rely upon the exemption.9 Under CEA Section 5d, 7 U.S.C. 7a– 3, EBOTs were facilities that traded commodities (other than securities or securities indexes) that had a nearly inexhaustible deliverable supply and either no cash market or a cash market so liquid that any contract traded on the commodity was highly unlikely to be susceptible to manipulation. EBOT transactions were limited to eligible contract participants 10 and subject to minimal trading prohibitions, including anti-fraud and anti-manipulation restrictions. EBOTs were required to file notice with the Commission of their election to operate as an EBOT.11 Section 723 of the Dodd-Frank Act repealed CEA Section 2(h)(3) as it then existed,12 thus eliminating the ECM category. Section 734 of the Dodd-Frank Act similarly repealed CEA Section 5d,13 thus eliminating the EBOT category. Both Sections 723 and 734 of the Dodd-Frank Act contain grandfather provisions allowing existing ECMs and EBOTs to petition the Commission to continue to operate as ECMs and EBOTs subject to the requirements of the CEA Sections 2(h)(3) and 5d, respectively, for a limited period of time.14 Pursuant to these grandfather provisions, the Commission issued an order in September 2010 granting petitioning ECMs and EBOTs up to one year of grandfather relief from the general effective date of the Dodd-Frank Act amendments to the CEA (‘‘Grandfather Relief Order’’).15 Subsequent to the Grandfather Relief Order, the Commission issued a series VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:30 Oct 01, 2015 Jkt 238001 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\02OCR1.SGM 02OCR1 asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with RULES
59576 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 191 / Friday, October 2, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 16 76 FR 42522 (July 19, 2011), 76 FR 80233 (December 23, 2011), and 77 FR 41260 (July 13, 2012). 17CFTC No-Action Letter No. 12–48 (December 11, 2012), available at: http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/ groups/public/@lrlettergeneral/documents/letter/ 12-48.pdf and CFTC No-Action Letter No. 13–28 (June 17, 2013), available at: http://www.cftc.gov/ ucm/groups/public/@lrlettergeneral/documents/ letter/13-28.pdf. 18See e.g., CEA Sections 2(d), 2(e), 2(g), 2(h), and 5d. 19The Commission orders and no-action letters were generally structured to permit transactions and relevant persons and entities to continue to rely on various CEA exemptive and excluding provisions in place prior to July 16, 2011 subject to other conditions, various anti-fraud and antimanipulation prohibitions and the expiration of exemptive relief orders as various Dodd-Frank Act implementing regulations became effective. 20See 5 U.S.C. 553(b) & (c). 21Adaptation of Regulations To Incorporate Swaps, 77 FR 66288 (November 2, 2012). 22The Commission proposed and finalized rules in the ‘‘Adaptation of Regulations to Incorporate SEFs’’ to make a number of conforming amendments to integrate the Commission’s regulations more fully with the new swaps framework created by the Dodd-Frank Act. 77 FR 66288 (November 2, 2012). 23 5 U.S.C. 551 et seq. 24See 5 U.S.C. 553(b) & (c). 25See 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A). 26See 5 U.S.C. 601 et seq. 27See id. 28See 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq. of orders 16 and Commission staff issued various no-action letters 17 that effectively extended expiration of the relief provided to ECMs and EBOTs in the Grandfather Relief Order. Collectively, the Grandfather Relief Order and subsequent Commission orders and staff no-action letters allowed ECMs and EBOTs, as well as other markets that relied on various preDodd-Frank Act provisions of the CEA,18 to continue operations under a regulatory status quo and, thus, ensured that industry practices would not be unduly disrupted during the transition to the new Dodd-Frank Act regulatory regime.19 The Grandfather Relief Order and various subsequent Commission orders have all expired, and entities that previously operated as ECMs or EBOTs are seeking registration to become either DCMs or SEFs to continue their operations. Accordingly, the Commission is removing all references to the Commission exemptive orders from Title 17 of the Code of Federal Regulations. As discussed in section III.A. below, the Commission is publishing this final rule pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A), which provides that the requirements for notice and opportunity for public comment do not apply to ‘‘rules of agency organization, procedure, or practice . . . .’’ 20 The rulemaking conforms the Commission’s regulations to the statutory requirements of the CEA by removing provisions that are of no legal effect because they concern exempt market categories that Congress, through the Dodd-Frank Act, removed from the statute; the Commission has no authority or discretion under the statute to retain the ECM and EBOT category designations in its regulations. As such, the amendments effected through this rulemaking—which have no impact on substantive rights or obligations under the CEA, as amended by the Dodd-Frank Act—are entirely ministerial and procedural in nature. II. Amended Regulations A. Part 36 The Commission is removing part 36 of its regulations in its entirety in order to reflect the Dodd-Frank Act’s elimination of the two categories of exempt markets—ECMs and EBOTs— from the CEA. B. Parts 15, 18, 40, and 140 The Commission is removing from parts 15, 18, 40, and 140 all references to the Grandfather Relief Orders added to the Commission’s regulations by Adaptation of Regulations To Incorporate Swaps rulemaking,21 as the authority under which those orders were issued has expired, and is removing all references in the Commission’s regulations to the terms ECMs, EBOTs, and electronic trading facilities (as sometimes used in the Commission’s regulations to refer to ECMs).22
Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 191 / Friday, October 2, 2015 / Rules and Regulations 59577 29 7 U.S.C. 19(a). D. Cost-Benefit Considerations
PART 18—REPORTS BY TRADERS ■ 3. The authority citation for part 18 continues to read as follows: Authority: 7 U.S.C. 2, 4, 5, 6a, 6c, 6f, 6g, 6i, 6k, 6m, 6n, 6t, 12a, and 19, as amended by Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). § 18.05 [Amended] ■ 4. Amend § 18.05 as follows: ■ a. Remove paragraphs (a)(3) and (a)(4); ■ b. In paragraph (a)(2), add the word ‘‘and’’ after the semicolon at the end of the paragraph; and ■ c. Redesignate paragraph (a)(5) as paragraph (a)(3). PART 36—[REMOVED AND RESERVED] ■ 5. Remove and reserve part 36. VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:30 Oct 01, 2015 Jkt 238001 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\02OCR1.SGM 02OCR1 asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with RULES
59578 Federal Register / Vol. 80, No. 191 / Friday, October 2, 2015 / Rules and Regulations PART 40—PROVISIONS COMMON TO REGISTERED ENTITIES ■ 6. The authority citation for part 40 continues to read as follows: Authority: 7 U.S.C. 1a, 2, 5, 6, 7, 7a and 12, as amended by Titles VII and VIII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. 111–203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010). § 40.8 [Amended] ■ 7. Amend § 40.8 by removing and reserving paragraph (b). ■ 8. Revise Appendix D to part 40 to read as follows: Appendix D to Part 40—Submission Cover Sheet and Instructions (a) A properly completed submission cover sheet shall accompany all rule and product submissions submitted electronically by a registered entity in a format and manner specified by the Secretary of the Commission to the Secretary of the Commission. A properly completed submission cover sheet shall include all of the following:
(d) * * * (2)(i) A request for a Letter relating to the provisions of the Act or the Commission’s rules, regulations or orders governing designated contract markets, registered swap execution facilities, registered swap data repositories, registered foreign boards of trade, the nature of particular transactions and whether they are exempt or excluded from being required to be traded on one of the foregoing entities, made available for trading determinations, position limits, hedging exemptions, position aggregation treatment or the reporting of market positions shall be filed with the Director, Division of Market Oversight, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581.
Issued in Washington, DC, on September 28, 2015, by the Commission. Christopher J. Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Commission. NOTE: The following appendix will not appear in the Code of Federal Regulations. Appendix To Repeal of the Exempt Commercial Market and Exempt Board of Trade Exemptions—Commission Voting Summary On this matter, Chairman Massad and Commissioners Bowen and Giancarlo voted in the affirmative. No Commissioner voted in the negative. [FR Doc. 2015–25029 Filed 10–1–15; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 6351–01–P SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 17 CFR Part 232 [Release Nos. 33–9911; 34–75918; 39–2506; IC–31823] Adoption of Updated EDGAR Filer Manual AGENCY: Securities and Exchange Commission. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Securities and Exchange Commission (the Commission) is adopting revisions to the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval System (EDGAR) Filer Manual and related rules to reflect updates to the EDGAR system. The updates are being made to add two new Security-based Swap Data Repository (SDR) submission form types; make available new exhibit EX–36 (Depositor Certification for shelf offerings of asset-backed securities) on EDGARLink Online for submission form types SF–3, SF–3/A, 8–K, and 8–K/A; accept Exhibit K and Exhibit L in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format for submission form types SDR, SDR/A, SDR–A, and SDR–W; consider valid XBRL file attachments if they contain multiple identically tagged XBRL facts; make documentation updates to Chapter 2 of the ‘‘EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume I: General Information’’ and Chapters 2, 3, and 7 of the ‘‘EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing’’ relating to Form NRSRO; and make formatting changes to ‘‘EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume I: General Information’’, ‘‘EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume II: EDGAR Filing’’, and ‘‘EDGAR Filer Manual, Volume III: N–SAR Supplement’’ for compliance with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act. The Filer Manual is also being revised to address software changes made previously in EDGAR. On July 10, 2015, Regulation A submission form types DOS, DOS/A, 1–A, 1–A/A, and 1–A POS were updated to prevent a filer from entering a response in Item 6(d) when the ‘‘None’’ option has been selected on Item 6. The EDGAR system is scheduled to be upgraded to support this functionality on September 14, 2015. DATES: Effective October 2, 2015. The incorporation by reference of the EDGAR Filer Manual is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of October 2, 2015. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: In the Division of Trading and Markets, for VerDate Sep<11>2014 20:30 Oct 01, 2015 Jkt 238001 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 4700 Sfmt 4700 E:\FR\FM\02OCR1.SGM 02OCR1 asabaliauskas on DSK5VPTVN1PROD with RULES