The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on October 19, 2010, calling for the creation of a reporting system for derivatives deemed “economically equivalent” to commodity futures related to certain specified energy, metals and agricultural commodities. The proposed system’s structure will be analogous to the CFTC’s current large trader reporting system for commodity futures and options contracts traded on designated contract markets (DCMs). The proposed reporting system is intended as a transitional tool through which the CFTC may collect swap positions data until swap data repositories become operational. At this time, the final text of the proposed rule has not been published in the Federal Register. However, the CFTC staff provided a summary of the rule when it was presented to the commissioners at an open meeting held on October 19, 2010. In addition, the CFTC has issued a fact sheet and a Q&A discussing the proposed rule.

This proposed rule is separate from the recently issued interim final rule regarding retention of swap transaction data for future reporting.1