I. Introduction and Executive Summary
On May 26, 2021, the Market Participants Division (“MPD”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) published updated responses to frequently asked questions (“revised FAQs”) about Form CPO-PQR and Rule 4.27, the related filing rule, which replace and supersede the FAQs about Form CPO-PQR and Rule 4.27 published in 2015 (“original FAQs”).1 The revised FAQs reflect amendments to Form CPO-PQR and Rule 4.27 adopted in October 2020, which substantially reduced and simplified Form CPO-PQR filing requirements (the “2020 Amendments”) by, among other things, removing all of the original FAQs pertaining to portions of Form CPO-PQR that were deleted by the 2020 Amendments.2
The revised FAQs are intended to provide guidance to commodity pool operators (“CPOs”) with respect to their filing obligations under amended Form CPO-PQR and Rule 4.27. While they include staff recommendations, the revised FAQs are not intended to create new regulations or compliance requirements or amend existing ones, and they reflect MPD staff views and positions only, not those of the Commission or any other CFTC office or division.
Highlights of What’s New
While most of the guidance in the revised FAQs reflects changes adopted in the 2020 Amendments and other CFTC rulemakings that post-date the original FAQs, and thus is neither new nor surprising, the responses make a number of points worth considering, including some helpful clarifications (relative to the Form and Instructions), as well as adjustments to guidance provided previously. Read More...
1 Press Release No. 8390-21, CFTC, CFTC’s Market Participants Division Publishes Updated Responses to FAQs Regarding Commission Regulation 4.27 and CFTC Form CPO-PQR (May 26, 2021), https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8390-21; see also Press Release No. 7273-15, CFTC, CFTC Staff Publishes Responses to Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Commission Forms CPO-PQR and CTA-PR (Nov. 5, 2015), https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/7273-15.
2 See Compliance Requirements for Commodity Pool Operators on Form CPO-PQR, 85 Fed. Reg. 71,772 (Nov. 10, 2020), https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2020-22874 (“Adopting Release”). Among other things, the 2020 Amendments eliminated large portions of the former Form, including all of Schedule B other than the Portfolio Schedule of Investments, all of Schedule C, and parts of Schedule A, as well as the differential filing requirements based on CPO size thresholds and related form instructions. As a result, the revised FAQs are significantly shorter than the original FAQs. For a more in-depth discussion of the 2020 Amendments, see our earlier Client Alert. Stradley Ronon Client Alert, The CFTC’s New and Improved Form CPO-PQR: Navigating the Revised Form and Filing Landscape (Dec. 14, 2020).
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