CFTC Sunsets Routine Large Trader Reporting for Physical Commodity Swaps

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a final order sunsetting routine position-reporting requirements under Part 20, which governs large trader reporting rules for physical commodity swaps. Under the final order, clearing organizations, clearing members, and swap dealers are no longer obligated to submit the daily and event-based position reports previously mandated by Part 20. CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig noted that the move aims to relieve financial market participants of costly and duplicative reporting rules that do not enhance regulatory oversight, while ensuring the agency maintains the necessary data access to safeguard markets. The sunsetting action was executed under § 20.9, a provision incorporated into Part 20 when the rule was first established in 2011 as a temporary framework. Since that time, the Commission's swap data reporting structure has matured with the implementation of swap data repository registration under Part 49, swap data reporting rules under Parts 43 and 45, and position limit regulations under Part 150. As a transitional measure, the CFTC is preserving the recordkeeping and special-call provisions of Part 20. Market entities must continue to maintain records of their paired swap and swaption transactions along with futures-equivalent conversion methods, and they remain obligated to provide this data upon receiving an appropriately scoped special call from the regulator. The order becomes effective upon publication in the Federal Register.