CFTC Staff Grants Bitnomial No-Action Relief for Event Contract Swap Reporting

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that its Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk have taken a no-action position concerning swap data reporting and recordkeeping regulations for specific event contracts. The relief was issued in response to a formal request from Bitnomial Exchange, LLC, a designated contract market (DCM), alongside Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC, a registered derivatives clearing organization (DCO). The position covers certain binary and bounded swap contracts traded on the platform. Under the terms outlined in the staff no-action letter, the CFTC divisions will not recommend enforcement actions against Bitnomial Exchange, Bitnomial Clearinghouse, or their market participants. This applies specifically to failures to comply with certain swap-related recordkeeping obligations and requirements to report data to swap data repositories for event contract transactions executed on Bitnomial Exchange and cleared via Bitnomial Clearinghouse. The regulator specified that this no-action position operates under narrow circumstances and remains consistent with similar relief letters previously granted to other designated contract markets and derivatives clearing organizations facing comparable conditions.