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<^^^^^^\° Three Lafayette Centre 

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'%-^w^ ^^-b www.cftc.gov 

Division of 

Market Oversight 

September 16, 2011 

Temporary and Conditional Relief from the Requirements of §§ 20.3 and 20.4 of the 

Commission's Regulations Regarding Large Swaps Trader Reporting for Physical Commodities 

By this letter, the Division of Market Oversight ("Division") of the Commodity Futures 

Trading Commission ("Commission") is making available temporary relief from the 

requirements of §§ 20.3 and 20.4 of the Commission's regulations regarding large trader 

reporting of physical commodity swaps activity. Reliance on this relief is voluntary and parties 

may choose to provide fully compliant §§ 20.3 and 20.4 reports to the Commission beginning 

September 20, 2011. 

On July 22, 2011, the Commission published large trader reporting rules for physical 

commodity swaps and swaptions. 76 FR 43851. Section 20.3 of the reporting rules requires 

daily reports from clearing organizations. Section 20.4 of the reporting rules requires daily 

reports from clearing members and swap dealers. Section 20.7 outlines the form and manner of 

reporting for both reports. The rules will be codified in new part 20 of the Commission's 

regulations and become effective on September 20, 2011. 

Section 20.10 establishes a flexible implementation framework for part 20. More 

specifically, § 20.10(c) allows for the submission of reports pursuant to §§ 20.3 and 20.4 that 

differ in content, or are submitted in a form and manner other than as prescribed, for six calendar 

months following the effective date of part 20, provided that submitters are making a good faith 
attempt to comply with part 20. Section 20.8(a)(5) delegates this authority to the Director of the 

Division. 

Division staff is actively engaged in ongoing compliance and implementation discussions 

with clearing organizations, clearing members, potential swap dealers, and data service 

providers, both separately and through the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and 

the Futures Industry Association. The Division believes that the participants in these discussions 

are representative of the parties that will be subject to the reporting rules. The Division further 

believes that the continuing participation of expected reporting parties in discussions to address 

compliance and implementation issues raised by the reporting rules represents a good faith 

attempt to comply with the requirements of part 20. Accordingly, consistent with the authority 

delegated by § 20.8(a)(5), the Director of the Division has determined to relieve clearing 

organizations and clearing members as a class from the reporting requirements of §§ 20.3 and 

20.4 until November 21, 2011 for cleared swaps, and January 20, 2012 for uncleared swaps. 

Upon the conclusion of applicable relief periods, such reporting parties shall become fully 

compliant with §§ 20.3 and 20.4 on an ongoing basis, as may be further modified by § 20.10. 

As a condition of this relief, clearing organizations for cleared swaps and separately 

clearing members for cleared and uncleared swaps (other than clearing members that are defined 

as such in § 20.1 solely because they are swap counterparties to exclusively-self cleared 

contracts as described in § 15.00 of the Commission's regulations) are required to provide open 

interest data for positions as of each month end during the applicable relief period, beginning 

with September 30, 2011, to be submitted no later than February 20, 2012. Submitted open 

interest data must be reported on a futures equivalent basis in terms of contracts listed in § 20.2 

of the reporting rules. The open interest data must allow the Commission to readily identify and 
distinguish swaps: (1) by the identifier assigned by a clearing organization for a cleared product; 

(2) that are cash settled based on the difference in price of the same commodity (or substantially 

the same commodity) at different delivery locations; and (3) that are based on an index 

comprised of prices of commodities that are not the same or substantially the same commodity 

(other than calendar spread or inter-commodity spread swaps). Open interest attributable to 

uncleared swaps must also be reported separately by the counterparty to such swaps. The 

Division further reminds the public that other applicable provisions of part 20, including the 

special call provision of § 20.5(b) and the books and records requirements of § 20.6, become 

effective on September 20, 2011. 

For additional information, contact Bruce Fekrat, Senior Special Counsel, Division of 

Market Oversight, at (202) 418-5578. 

Sincerely, 

^chard A. 

Director 

Division of Market Oversight