On May 26, 2016, the CFTC issued for public comment a supplement to the CFTC's December 2013 position limits proposal. The supplement would permit exchanges to recognize, subject to CFTC review, certain positions in commodity derivative contracts as non-enumerated bona fide hedges or enumerated anticipatory bona fide hedges, as well as to exempt from federal position limits certain spread positions.
In a statement issued concurrently with the proposed rule, CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad noted that the proposed supplemental rule was a critical piece of the CFTC's effort to finalize rules on position limits in 2016.
CFTC Commissioner Christopher Giancarlo also voiced support for the proposal in a separate statement, stating his belief that the proposal reflects practical realities by recognizing that most exchanges do not have access to sufficient swap position information to effectively monitor swap position limits.
If adopted, the proposed supplement would relieve designated contract markets and swap execution facilities from setting and monitoring exchange limits on swaps until DCMs and SEFs have access to data that would enable them to do so.
The full text of the proposed supplemental rule is available at: http://www.cftc.gov/idc/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/federalregister052616.pdf.
The text of Chairman Massad's statement is available at: http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/massadstatement052616.
The text of Commissioner Giancarlo's statement is available at: http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/giancarlostatement052616.
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