The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) has granted no-action relief from certain reporting obligations to commodity pool operators (CPOs) of registered investment companies (RICs) that trade commodity interests through wholly owned subsidiaries known as controlled foreign corporations (CFCs). This coincides with the CFTC’s recent rule release harmonizing compliance obligations for RICs (and CFCs) that are also regulated as commodity pools. More information regarding the CFTC’s recent rule release is available here.

Pursuant to the no-action letter, a CPO of an RIC that uses a wholly owned CFC to trade commodity interests would not be required to separately report to National Futures Association under CFTC Regulations 4.22(c) and 4.27(c) for such CFC, but rather would be permitted to file consolidated information for the RIC and its CFC(s). To obtain such relief, among other requirements, the CPO of the CFC must also be the CPO of the RIC, and must file a claim of relief with the DSIO via electronic mail pursuant to the instructions set out in the no-action letter.  

CFTC Letter No. 13-51 is available here.