CFTC Provides Relief From Certain Recordkeeping Requirements Applicable To CPOs And CTAs

Effective December 24, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) revised its Rule 1.35(a) to provide relief from certain recordkeeping requirements for commodity pool operators (“CPOs”) and commodity trading advisors (“CTAs”), whether registered with the CFTC or not, that are members of a designated contract market or have trading privileges on a swap execution facility. Under the revised Rule, CPOs and CTAs still are required to keep records of all transactions in commodity interests and related cash or forward transactions.¹ However, CPOs and CTAs not registered with the CFTC need not keep transaction records that are in the form of text messages (defined as short message service (“SMS”) or multimedia messaging service (“MMS”) telephone transmissions).² In addition, CPOs and CTAs not registered with the CFTC need not keep records of written pre-trade communications.³ Moreover, CPOs or CTAs, whether registered or not, are not required to