The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO or Division) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) recently granted no-action relief from the reporting requirements of CFTC Rule 4.7(b)(2) to a commodity pool operator (CPO) of two commodity pools, subject to certain conditions. CFTC Rule 4.7(b)(2) places a reporting requirement on a CPO that relies on such rule to distribute quarterly account statements to commodity pool participants within 30 days after the end of each quarter.

The CPO, in its letter requesting relief, stated that each commodity pool for which it was requesting relief was a “fund of funds,” and that it was not administratively feasible for such pools to meet the 30-day deadline for distributing their own account statements, due to their reliance upon information from the account statements received from the underlying funds in which such pools invest (which the CPO indicated were often received only a few days prior to the deadline under the rule). The Commission accepted the CPO’s position, and granted exemptive relief conditioned upon the following:

• The CPO must distribute to its participants account statements within 45 days after the end of each month, containing all of the information required to be included in a quarterly statement under CFTC Rule 4.7(b)(2) (and affirmed in accordance with CFTC rules); and
• The CPO must inform current and prospective participants that such account statements will be provided within 45 days after the end of each month.