2020-23671. Agency Information Collection Activities Under OMB Review

AGENCY:

Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), this notice announces that the Information Collection Request (ICR) abstracted below has been forwarded to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), for review and comment. The ICR describes the nature of the information collection and its expected costs and burden.

DATES:

Comments must be submitted on or before November 25, 2020.

ADDRESSES:

Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information collection should be submitted within 30 days of this notice's publication to OIRA, at https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain. Please find this particular information collection by selecting “Currently under 30-day Review—Open for Public Comments” or by using the website's search function. Comments can be entered electronically by clicking on the “comment” button next to the information collection on the “OIRA Information Collections Under Review” page, or the “View ICR—Agency Submission” page. A copy of the supporting statement for the collection of information discussed herein may be obtained by visiting https://www.reginfo.gov/​public/​do/​PRAMain.

In addition to the submission of comments to https://Reginfo.gov as indicated above, a copy of all comments submitted to OIRA may also be submitted to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “Commission” or “CFTC”) by clicking on the “Submit Comment” box next to the descriptive entry for OMB Control No. 3038-0092, at https://comments.cftc.gov/​FederalRegister/​PublicInfo.aspx

Or by either of the following methods:

• Mail: Christopher Kirkpatrick, Secretary of the Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20581.
• Hand Delivery/Courier: Same as Mail above.

All comments must be submitted in English, or if not, accompanied by an English translation. Comments submitted to the Commission should include only information that you wish to make available publicly. If you wish the Commission to consider information that you believe is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, a petition for confidential treatment of the exempt information may be submitted according to the procedures established in § 145.9 of the Commission's regulations.^[1] The Commission reserves the right, but shall have no obligation, to review, pre-screen, filter, redact, refuse or remove any or all of your submission from https://www.cftc.gov that it may deem to be inappropriate for publication, such as obscene language. All submissions that have been redacted or removed that contain comments on the merits of the ICR will be retained in the public comment file and will be considered as required under the Administrative Procedure Act and other applicable laws, and may be accessible under the Freedom of Information Act.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Megan Wallace, Senior Special Counsel, Division of Clearing and Risk, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, [phone]; email: [e-mail], and refer to OMB Control No. 3038-0092.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Customer Clearing Documentation and Timing of Acceptance for Clearing (OMB Control No. 3038-0092). This is a request for extension of a currently approved information collection.

Abstract: Section 4d(c) of the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Reform Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”), directs the Commission to require futures commission merchants (“FCMs”) to implement conflict of interest procedures that address such issues the Commission determines to be appropriate. Similarly, section 4s(j)(5) of the CEA, as added by the Dodd-Frank Act, requires swap dealers (“SDs”) and major swap participants (“MSPs”) to implement conflict of interest procedures that address such issues the Commission determines to be appropriate. Section 4s(j)(5) also requires SDs and MSPs to ensure that any persons providing clearing activities or making determinations as to accepting clearing customers are separated by appropriate informational partitions from persons whose involvement in pricing, trading, or clearing activities might bias their judgment or contravene the core principle of open access. Section 4s(j)(6) of the CEA prohibits a SD or MSP from adopting any process or taking any action that results in any unreasonable restraint on trade or imposes any material anticompetitive burden on trading or clearing, unless necessary or appropriate to achieve the purposes of the Act. Section 2(h)(1)(B)(ii) of the CEA requires that derivatives clearing organization (“DCOs”) rules provide for the nondiscriminatory clearing of swaps executed bilaterally or through an unaffiliated designated contract market or swap execution facility.

To address these provisions, the Commission promulgated regulations that prohibit arrangements involving FCMs, SDs, MSPs, and DCOs that would (a) disclose to an FCM, SD, or MSP the identity of a customer's original executing counterparty (§§ 1.72(a), 23.608(a), and 39.12(a)(1)(vi)); (b) limit the number of counterparties with whom a customer may enter into a trade (§§ 1.72(b), 23.608(b), and 39.12(a)(1)(vi)); (c) restrict the size of the position a customer may take with any individual counterparty, apart from an overall credit limit for all positions held by the customer at the FCM (§§ 1.72(c), 23.608(c), and 39.12(a)(1)(vi)); (d) impair a customer's access to execution of a trade on terms that have a reasonable relationship to the best terms available (§§ 1.72(d), 23.608(d), and 39.12(a)(1)(vi)); or (e) prevent compliance with specified time frames for acceptance of trades into clearing set forth in 1.74(b), 23.610(b), or 39.12(b)(7) (§§ 1.72(e), 23.608(e), and 39.12(a)(1)(vi)). Additionally, the Commission requires, through regulation 39.12(b)(7)(i)(B), DCOs to coordinate with clearing members to establish prompt processing of trades. Regulations 1.74(a) and 23.610(a) require reciprocal coordination by FCMs, SDs, and MSPs that are clearing members.

Under the above regulations, SDs, MSPs, FCMs, and DCOs are required to develop and maintain written customer clearing documentation and trade processing procedures. Maintenance of contracts, policies, and procedures is prudent business practice. All SDs, MSPs, FCMs, and DCOs maintain documentation consistent with these regulations. The regulations are crucial both for effective risk management and for the efficient operation of trading venues among SDs, MSPs, FCMs, and DCOs. Each of these entities has a general recordkeeping obligation for these requirements under the Commission's regulations (§ 39.20 for DCOs; § 23.606 for SDs and MSPs; and § 1.73 for FCMs).

The information collection burden arising from the regulations primarily is restricted to the costs associated with the affected registrants' obligation to maintain records related to clearing documentation between the customer and the customer's clearing member, and trade processing procedures between DCOs and FCMs, SDs, and MSPs. The information collection obligations are necessary to implement certain provisions of the CEA, including ensuring that registrants exercise effective risk management and for the efficient operation of trading venues among SDs, MSPs, FCMs, and DCOs.

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. On August 17, 2020, the Commission published in the Federal Register notice of the proposed extension of this information collection and provided 60 days for public comment on the proposed extension, 85 FR 50013 (“60-Day Notice”) The Commission did not receive any comments on the 60-Day Notice.

Burden Statement: The respondent burden for this collection is estimated to be as follows:

Estimated Number of Respondents: 183.

Estimated Average Burden Hours per Respondent: 40.

Estimated Total Annual Burden Hours: 7,320.

Frequency of Collection: Daily, annually, or as needed.

There are no capital costs or operating and maintenance costs associated with this collection.

Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.

Dated: October 21, 2020.

Robert Sidman,

Deputy Secretary of the Commission.

Footnotes

1.  17 CFR 145.9.