OCR KO’d for now
The CFTC has issued a no-action letter providing time-limited relief for compliance with the Ownership and Control Reporting (OCR) Final Rule. The OCR Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on 18 November 2013, obliging full compliance by 15 August 2014. The rule updates three existing forms and introduces two new, imposing additional trader identification requirements and mandating automated electronic filing. No-action Letter 14-95 provides specific relief as follows:
- Relief from electronically reporting via New Form 102A and New Form 1028 until 11 February 2015
- Relief from electronically reporting via New Form 102B until 11 March 2015
- Relief from electronically reporting via New Form 40/408 and New Form 71 until 11 February 2016
The relief is granted subject to particular terms and conditions specified in the letter,including the condition that parties continue to report via the legacy, non-automated submission methods until the expiry of phased-in relief. This latest no-action was granted in response to a letter from the FIA, stating that compliance with the rule would require the following:
- Building a database to house the customer information that resides in various systems within the firm as well as data that has never before been collected
- Expanding the data collection to include an entirely new class of reportable accounts triggered by a volume threshold
- Designing trigger files that determine when accounts are reportable
- Designing systems that detect change updates and report them to the Commission
- Designing systems that detect annual refresh dates and prompt clients to review the data
- Designing a secure system to protect highly confidential data pertaining to clients and natural persons
- Changing internal processes in order to meet the deadlines included in the OCR Final Rule