Title 17

SECTION 190.10

190.10 General.

§ 190.10 General.

(a) Notices. Unless instructed otherwise by the Commission, all mandatory or discretionary notices to be given to the Commission under this part shall be directed by electronic mail to [email protected], with a copy sent by overnight mail to Director, Division of Clearing and Risk, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Three Lafayette Centre, 1155 21st Street NW., Washington, DC 20581. For purposes of this part, notice to the Commission shall be deemed to be given only upon actual receipt.

(b) Request for exemption from time limit. (1) A trustee or any other person charged with the management of a commodity broker which has filed a petition in bankruptcy, or against which such a petition has been filed, may for good cause shown request from the Commission an exemption from, or extension of, any time limit prescribed by this part 190: Provided, That no such exemption or extension will be granted for any time period established by the Bankruptcy Code, as amended, 11 U.S.C. 101 et seq.

(2) Such a request shall be made ex parte and by any means of communication, written or oral: Provided, That an oral request shall be confirmed in writing within one business day and such confirmation shall contain all the information required by paragraph (b)(3) of this section. Any such request shall be directed to the person as provided in paragarph (a) of this section, and at the address provided therein.

(3) Such a request shall state the particular provision of the part 190 rules with respect to which the exemption or extension is sought, the reason for the requested exemption or extension, the amount of time sought if the request is for an extension, and the reason why such exemption or extension would not be contrary to the purposes of the Bankruptcy Code and the Commission's part 190 regulations promulgated thereunder.

(4) The Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk, or such members of the Commission's staff acting under his direction as he may designate, on the basis of the information provided in any such request, shall determine, after consultation with the Director of the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, or such member of the Commission's staff under his direction as he may designate, unless exigent circumstances require immediate action precluding such prior consultation., whether to grant, deny or otherwise respond to a request, and shall communicate that determination by the most appropriate means to the person making the request and to the bankruptcy court with jurisdiction over the case.

(c) Disclosure statement for non-cash margin. (1) Except as provided in § 1.65 of this chapter, no commodity broker (other than a clearing organization) may accept property other than cash from or for the account of a customer, other than a customer specified in § 1.55(f) of this chapter, to margin, guarantee, or secure a commodity contract unless the commodity broker first furnishes the customer with the disclosure statement set forth in paragraph (c)(2) of this section in boldface print in at least 10 point type which may be provided as either a separate, written document or incorporated into the customer agreement, or with another statement approved under § 1.55(c) of this chapter and set forth in appendix A to § 1.55 which the Commission finds satisfies this requirement.

(2) The disclosure statement required by paragraph (c)(1) of this section is as follows:

THIS STATEMENT IS FURNISHED TO YOU BECAUSE RULE 190.10 (c) OF THE COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION REQUIRES IT FOR REASONS OF FAIR NOTICE UNRELATED TO THIS COMPANY'S CURRENT FINANCIAL CONDITION.

1. YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT OF THIS COMPANY'S BANKRUPTCY, PROPERTY, INCLUDING PROPERTY SPECIFICALLY TRACEABLE TO YOU, WILL BE RETURNED, TRANSFERRED OR DISTRIBUTED TO YOU, OR ON YOUR BEHALF, ONLY TO THE EXTENT OF YOUR PRO RATA SHARE OF ALL PROPERTY AVAILABLE FOR DISTRIBUTION TO CUSTOMERS.

2. NOTICE CONCERNING THE TERMS FOR THE RETURN OF SPECIFICALLY IDENTIFIABLE PROPERTY WILL BE BY PUBLICATION IN A NEWSPAPER OF GENERAL CIRCULATION.

3. THE COMMISSION'S REGULATIONS CONCERNING BANKRUPTCIES OF COMMODITY BROKERS CAN BE FOUND AT 17 CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS PART 190.

(3) The statement contained in paragraph (c)(2) of this section need be furnished only once to each customer to whom it is required to be furnished by this section.

(d) Delegation of authority to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk. (1) Until such time as the Commission orders otherwise, the Commission hereby delegates to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk, and to such members of the Commission's staff acting under his direction as he may designate, after consultation with the Director of the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, or such member of the Commission's staff under his direction as he may designate, unless exigent circumstances require immediate action., all the functions of the Commission set forth in this part except the authority to approve or disapprove a withdrawal or settlement of a commodity contract account by a public customer pursuant to § 190.06(g)(3).

(2) The Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter which has been delegated to him pursuant to paragraph (d)(1) of this section.

(3) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Commission, at its election, from exercising its authority delegated to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk under paragraph (d)(1) of this section.

(e) Forward contracts. For purposes of this part, an entity for or with whom the debtor deals who holds a claim against the debtor solely on account of a forward contract will not be deemed to be a customer.

(f) Notice of court papers pertaining to the operation of the estate. The trustee shall promptly provide the Commission with copies of any complaint, motion, or petition filed in a commodity broker bankruptcy which concerns the disposition of customer property. Court papers shall be directed to the Washington, DC headquarters of the Commission addressed as provided in paragraph (a) of this section.

(g) Other. The Bankruptcy Code will not be construed by the Commission to prohibit a commodity broker from doing business as any combination of the following: futures commission merchant, commodity option dealer, foreign futures commission merchant or leverage transaction merchant, nor will the Commission construe the Bankruptcy Code to permit any operation, trade or business, or any combination of the foregoing, otherwise prohibited by the Act or by any rule, regulation or order of the Commission thereunder.

(h) Rule of construction. Contracts in security futures products held in a securities account shall not be considered to be “from or for the commodity contract account” or “from or for the commodity options account” of such customers, as such terms are used in section 761(9) of the Bankruptcy Code.

(Secs. 2(a), 4c, 4d, 4g, 5, 5a, 8a, 15, 19 and 20 of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended by the Futures Trading Act of 1982, Pub. L. 97-444, 96 Stat. 2294 (1983), 7 U.S.C. 2 and 4a, 6c, 6d, 6g, 7, 7a, 12a, 19, 23 and 24 (1976 & Supp. V. 1981 and Pub. L. 97-444); secs. 761-766 of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978, as amended by the Bankruptcy Act Amendments, Pub. L. 97-222, 96 Stat. 235 (1982), 11 U.S.C. 761-766 (Supp. V. 1981 as amended by Pub. L. 97-222)) [48 FR 8739, Mar. 1, 1983, as amended at 48 FR 28980, June 24, 1983; 58 FR 17505, Apr. 5, 1993; 59 FR 34382, July 5, 1994; 60 FR 49336, Sept. 25, 1995; 63 FR 8571, Feb. 20, 1998; 67 FR 58298, Sept. 13, 2002; 67 FR 62353, Oct. 7, 2002; 77 FR 6378, 6382, Feb. 7, 2012; 78 FR 22419, Apr. 16, 2013]