Designated Contract Markets

§ 38.1 — Scope.

The provisions of this part 38 shall apply to every board of trade that has been designated or is applying to become designated as a contract market under Sections 5 and 6 of the Act. Provided, however, nothing in this provision affects the eligibility of designated contract markets to operate under the provisions of parts 37 or 49 of this chapter.

§ 38.2 — Exempt provisions.

A designated contract market, the designated contract market’s operator and transactions traded on or through a designated contract market under section 5 of the Act shall comply with all applicable regulations under Title 17 of the Code of Federal Regulations, except for the requirements of § 1.39(b), § 1.44, § 1.53, § 1.54, § 1.59(b) and (c), § 1.62, § 1.63(a) and (b) and (d) through (f), § 1.64, § 1.69, part 8, § 100.1, § 155.2, and part 156.

§ 38.3 — Procedures for designation.

(a) Application procedures. (1) A board of trade seeking designation as a contract market must file electronically, in a format and manner specified by the Secretary of the Commission, the Form DCM provided in appendix A of this part, with the Secretary of the Commission at its Washington, DC headquarters at submissions@cftc.gov and the Division of Market Oversight at DMOSubmissions@cftc.gov. The Commission will review the application for designation as a contract market pursuant to the 180-day timeframe and procedures specified in section 6(a) of the Act. The Commission shall approve or deny the application or, if deemed appropriate, designate the applicant as a contract market subject to conditions.

(2) The application must include information sufficient to demonstrate compliance with the core principles specified in section 5(d) of the Act. Form DCM consists of instructions, general questions and a list of exhibits (documents, information and evidence) required by the Commission in order to determine whether an applicant is able to comply with the core principles. An application will not be considered to be materially complete unless the applicant has submitted, at a minimum, the exhibits required in Form DCM. If the application is not materially complete, the Commission shall notify the applicant that the application will not be deemed to have been submitted for purposes of starting the 180-day review period set forth in paragraph (a)(1) of this section.

(3) The applicant must identify with particularity any information in the application that will be subject to a request for confidential treatment pursuant to § 145.9 of this chapter.

(4) Section 40.8 of this chapter sets forth those sections of the application that will be made publicly available, notwithstanding a request for confidential treatment pursuant to § 145.9 of this chapter.

(5) If any information contained in the application or in any exhibit is or becomes inaccurate for any reason, an amendment to the application or a submission filed under part 40 of this chapter must be filed promptly correcting such information.

(b) Reinstatement of dormant designation. Before listing or relisting products for trading, a dormant designated contract market as defined in § 40.1 of this chapter must reinstate its designation under the procedures of paragraphs (a)(1) and (2) of this section; provided, however, that an application for reinstatement may rely upon previously submitted materials that still pertain to, and accurately describe, current conditions.

(c) Delegation of authority. (1) The Commission hereby delegates, until it orders otherwise, to the Director of the Division of Market Oversight or such other employee or employees as the Director may designate from time to time, upon consultation with the General Counsel or the General Counsel’s designee, authority to notify the applicant seeking designation under section 6(a) of the Act that the application is materially incomplete and the running of the 180-day period is stayed.

(2) The Director may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter that has been delegated in this paragraph.

(3) Nothing in this paragraph prohibits the Commission, at its election, from exercising the authority delegated in paragraph (c)(1) of this section.

(d) Request for transfer of designation—(1) Request for transfer of designation, listed contracts and open interest. A designated contract market that wants to request the transfer of its designation from its current legal entity to a new legal entity, as a result of a corporate reorganization or otherwise, must file a request with the Commission for approval to transfer the designation, listed contracts and positions comprising all associated open interest. Such request must be filed electronically, in a format and manner specified by the Secretary of the Commission, with the Secretary of the Commission at its Washington, DC headquarters at submissions@cftc.gov and the Division of Market Oversight at DMOSubmissions@cftc.gov.

(2) Timing of submission. The request must be filed no later than three months prior to the anticipated corporate change; provided that the designated contract market may file a request with the Commission later than three months prior to the anticipated corporate change if the designated contract market does not know and reasonably could not have known of the anticipated change three months prior to the anticipated corporate change. In such event, the designated contract market shall be required to immediately file the request with the Commission as soon as it knows of such change, with an explanation as to the timing of the request.

(3) Required information. The request shall include the following:

(i) The underlying agreement that governs the corporate change;

(ii) A narrative description of the corporate change, including the reason for the change and its impact on the designated contract market, including its governance and operations, and its impact on the rights and obligations of market participants holding the open interest positions;

(iii) A discussion of the transferee’s ability to comply with the Act, including the core principles applicable to designated contract markets, and the Commission’s regulations thereunder;

(iv) The governing documents of the transferee including, but not limited to, articles of incorporation and bylaws;

(v) The transferee’s rules marked to show changes from the current rules of the designated contract market;

(vi) A list of contracts, agreements, transactions or swaps for which the designated contract market requests transfer of open interest;

(vii) A representation by the transferee that it:

(A) Will be the surviving legal entity and successor-in-interest to the transferor designated contract market and will retain and assume, without limitation, all the assets and liabilities of the transferor;

(B) Will assume responsibility for complying with all applicable provisions of the Act and the Commission’s regulations thereunder, including part 38 and Appendices thereto;

(C) Will assume, maintain and enforce all rules implementing and complying with these core principles, including the adoption of the transferor’s rulebook, as amended in the request, and that any such amendments will be submitted to the Commission pursuant to section 5c(c) of the Act and part 40 of the Commission’s regulations; and

(D) Will comply with all self-regulatory responsibilities except if otherwise indicated in the request, and will maintain and enforce all self-regulatory programs.

(viii) A representation by the transferee that upon the transfer:

(A) All open interest in all contracts listed on the transferor will be transferred to and represent equivalent open interest in all such contracts listed on the transferee;

(B) It will assume responsibility for and maintain compliance with the core principles for all contracts previously listed for trading through the transferor, whether by certification or approval; and

(C) That none of the proposed rule changes will affect the rights and obligations of any market participant with open positions transferred to it and that the proposed rule changes do not modify the manner in which such contracts are settled or cleared.

(ix) A representation by the transferee that market participants will be notified of all changes to the transferor’s rulebook prior to the transfer and will be further notified of the concurrent transfer of the contract market designation, and the related transfer of all listed contracts and all associated open interest, to the transferee upon Commission approval and issuance of an order permitting this transfer.

(4) Commission determination. The Commission will review a request as soon as practicable and such request will be approved or denied pursuant to a Commission order and based on the Commission’s determination as to the transferee’s ability to continue to operate the designated contract market in compliance with the Act and the Commission’s regulations thereunder.

(e) Request for withdrawal of application for designation. An applicant for designation may withdraw its application submitted pursuant to paragraphs (a)(1) and (2) of this section by filing such a request with the Commission. Such request must be filed electronically, in a format and manner specified by the Secretary of the Commission, with the Secretary of the Commission at its Washington, DC headquarters, at submissions@cftc.gov, and the Division of Market Oversight, at DMOSubmissions@cftc.gov. Withdrawal of an application for designation shall not affect any action taken or to be taken by the Commission based upon actions, activities or events occurring during the time that the application for designation was pending with the Commission.

(f) Request for vacation of designation. A designated contract market may vacate its designation under section 7 of the Act by filing a request electronically, in a format and manner specified by the Secretary of the Commission, with the Secretary of the Commission at its Washington, DC headquarters at submissions@cftc.gov and the Division of Market Oversight at DMOSubmissions@cftc.gov. Vacation of designation shall not affect any action taken or to be taken by the Commission based upon actions, activities or events occurring during the time that the facility was designated by the Commission.

§ 38.4 — Procedures for listing products and implementing contract market rules.

(a) Request for Commission approval of rules and products. (1) An applicant for designation, or a designated contract market, may request that the Commission approve under section 5c(c) of the Act, any or all of its rules and contract terms and conditions, and subsequent amendments thereto, prior to their implementation or, notwithstanding the provisions of section 5c(c)(4) of the Act, at any time thereafter, under the procedures of § 40.3 or § 40.5 of this chapter, as applicable. A designated contract market may label a future, swap or options product in its rules as “Listed for trading pursuant to Commission approval,” if the future, swap or options product and its terms or conditions have been approved by the Commission, and it may label as “Approved by the Commission” only those rules that have been so approved.

(2) Notwithstanding the timeline under §§ 40.3(c) and 40.5(c) of this chapter, the operating rules, and terms and conditions of futures, swaps and option products that have been submitted for Commission approval at the same time as an application for contract market designation or an application under § 38.3(b) of this part to reinstate the designation of a dormant designated contract market, as defined in § 40.1 of this chapter, or while one of the foregoing is pending, will be deemed approved by the Commission no earlier than when the facility is deemed to be designated or reinstated.

(b) Self-certification of rules and products. Rules of a designated contract market and subsequent amendments thereto, including both operational rules and the terms or conditions of futures, swaps and option products listed for trading on the facility, not voluntarily submitted for prior Commission approval pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, must be submitted to the Commission with a certification that the rule, rule amendment or futures, swap or options product complies with the Act or rules thereunder pursuant to the procedures of § 40.6 of this chapter, as applicable. Provided, however, any rule or rule amendment that would, for a delivery month having open interest, materially change a term or condition of a swap or a contract for future delivery in an agricultural commodity enumerated in section 1a(9) of the Act, or of an option on such contract or commodity, must be submitted to the Commission prior to its implementation for review and approval under § 40.4 of this chapter.

(c) An applicant for designation, or a designated contract market, may request that the Commission consider under the provisions of section 15(b) of the Act any of the contract market’s rules or policies, including both operational rules and the terms or conditions of products listed for trading.

§ 38.5 — Information relating to contract market compliance.

(a) Requests for information. Upon request by the Commission, a designated contract market must file with the Commission information related to its business as a designated contract market, including information relating to data entry and trade details, in the form and manner and within the time specified by the Commission in its request.

(b) Demonstration of compliance. Upon request by the Commission, a designated contract market must file with the Commission a written demonstration, containing supporting data, information and documents, in the form and manner and within the time specified by the Commission, that the designated contract market is in compliance with one or more core principles as specified in the request, or that is requested by the Commission to show that the designated contract market satisfies its obligations under the Act.

(c) Equity interest transfers—(1) Equity interest transfer notification. A designated contract market shall file with the Commission a notification of each transaction that the designated contract market enters into involving the transfer of ten percent or more of the equity interest in the designated contract market.

(2) Timing of Notification. The equity transfer notice described in paragraph (1) shall be filed electronically with the Secretary of the Commission at its Washington, DC headquarters at submissions@cftc.gov and the Division of Market Oversight at DMOSubmissions@cftc.gov, at the earliest possible time but in no event later than the open of business ten business days following the date upon which the designated contract market enters into a firm obligation to transfer the equity interest.

(3) Rule filing. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any aspect of an equity interest transfer described in paragraph (c)(1) of this section that necessitates the filing of a rule as defined in part 40 of this chapter shall comply with the requirements of 5c(c) of the Act and part 40 of this chapter, and all other applicable Commission regulations.

(d) Delegation of authority. The Commission hereby delegates, until it orders otherwise, the authority set forth in paragraph (b) of this section to the Director of the Division of Market Oversight or such other employee or employees as the Director may designate from time to time. The Director may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter that has been delegated in this paragraph. Nothing in this paragraph prohibits the Commission, at its election, from exercising the authority delegated in this paragraph.

§ 38.6 — Enforceability.

An agreement, contract or transaction entered into on or pursuant to the rules of a designated contract market shall not be void, voidable, subject to rescission or otherwise invalidated or rendered unenforceable as a result of:

(a) A violation by the designated contract market of the provisions of section 5 of the Act or this part 38; or

(b) Any Commission proceeding to alter or supplement a rule, term or condition under section 8a(7) of the Act, to declare an emergency under section 8a(9) of the Act, or any other proceeding the effect of which is to alter, supplement, or require a designated contract market to adopt a specific term or condition, trading rule or procedure, or to take or refrain from taking a specific action.

§ 38.7 — Prohibited use of data collected for regulatory purposes.

A designated contract market may not use for business or marketing purposes any proprietary data or personal information it collects or receives, from or on behalf of any person, for the purpose of fulfilling its regulatory obligations; provided however, that a designated contract market may use such data or information for business or marketing purposes if the person from whom it collects or receives such data or information clearly consents to the designated contract market’s use of such data or information in such manner. A designated contract market, where necessary, for regulatory purposes, may share such data or information with one or more designated contract markets or swap execution facilities registered with the Commission. A designated contract market may not condition access to its trading facility on a market participant’s consent to the use of proprietary data or personal information for business or marketing purposes.

§ 38.8 — Listing of swaps on a designated contract market.

(a) A designated contract market that lists for the first time a swap contract for trading on its contract market must, either prior to or at the time of such listing, file with the Commission a written demonstration detailing how the designated contract market is addressing its self-regulatory obligations and is fulfilling its statutory and regulatory obligations with respect to swap transactions.

(b)(1) Prior to listing swaps for trading on or through a designated contract market, each designated contract market must obtain from the Commission a unique, alphanumeric code assigned to the designated contract market by the Commission for the purpose of identifying the designated contract market with respect to unique swap identifier creation. (2) Each designated contract market must generate and assign a unique swap identifier at, or as soon as technologically practicable following, the time of execution of the swap, in a manner consistent with the requirements of part 45.

§ 38.9 — Boards of trade operating both a designated contract market and a swap execution facility.

(a) A board of trade that operates a designated contract market and that intends to also operate a swap execution facility must separately register, pursuant to the swap execution facility registration requirements set forth in part 37 of this chapter, and on an ongoing basis, comply with the core principles under section 5h of the Act, and the swap execution facility rules under part 37 of this chapter.

(b) A board of trade that operates both a designated contract market and a swap execution facility, and that uses the same electronic trade execution system for executing and trading swaps that it uses in its capacity as a designated contract market, must clearly identify to market participants for each swap whether the execution or trading of such swap is taking place on the designated contract market or on the swap execution facility.

§ 38.10 — Reporting of swaps traded on a designated contract market.

With respect to swaps traded on and/or pursuant to the rules of a designated contract market, each designated contract market must maintain and report specified swap data as provided under parts 43 and 45 of this chapter.

§ 38.11 — Trade execution compliance schedule.

(a) A swap transaction shall be subject to the requirements of section 2(h)(8) of the Act upon the later of:

(1) The applicable deadline established under the compliance schedule provided under § 50.25(b) of this chapter; or

(2) Thirty days after the available-to-trade determination submission or certification for that swap is, respectively, deemed approved under § 40.5 of this chapter or deemed certified under § 40.6 of this chapter.

(b) Nothing in this section shall prohibit any counterparty from complying voluntarily with the requirements of section 2(h)(8) of the Act sooner than as provided in paragraph (a) of this section.

§ 38.12 — Process for a designated contract market to make a swap available to trade.

(a)(1) Required submission. A designated contract market that makes a swap available to trade in accordance with paragraph (b) of this section, shall submit to the Commission its determination with respect to such swap as a rule, as that term is defined by § 40.1 of this chapter, pursuant to the procedures under part 40 of this chapter.

(2) Listing requirement. A designated contract market that makes a swap available to trade must demonstrate that it lists or offers that swap for trading on its trading system or platform.

(b) Factors to consider. To make a swap available to trade, for purposes of section 2(h)(8) of the Act, a designated contract market shall consider, as appropriate, the following factors with respect to such swap:

(1) Whether there are ready and willing buyers and sellers;

(2) The frequency or size of transactions;

(3) The trading volume;

(4) The number and types of market participants;

(5) The bid/ask spread; or

(6) The usual number of resting firm or indicative bids and offers.

(c) Applicability. (1) Upon a determination that a swap is available to trade on any designated contract market or swap execution facility pursuant to part 40 of this chapter, all other designated contract markets and swap execution facilities shall comply with the requirements of section 2(h)(8)(A) of the Act in listing or offering such swap for trading.

(d) Removal—(1) Determination. The Commission may issue a determination that a swap is no longer available to trade upon determining that no swap execution facility or designated contract market lists such swap for trading.

(2) Delegation of Authority. (i) The Commission hereby delegates, until it orders otherwise, to the Director of the Division of Market Oversight or such other employee or employees as the Director may designate from time to time, the authority to issue a determination that a swap is no longer available to trade.

(ii) The Director may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter that has been delegated in this section. Nothing in this section prohibits the Commission, at its election, from exercising the authority delegated in this section.

§ 38.100 — Core Principle 1.

(a) In general. To be designated, and maintain a designation, as a contract market, a board of trade shall comply with:

(1) Any core principle described in section 5(d) of the Act, and

(2) Any requirement that the Commission may impose by rule or regulation pursuant to section 8a(5) of the Act.

(b) Reasonable discretion of the contract market. Unless otherwise determined by the Commission by rule or regulation, a board of trade described in paragraph (a) of this section shall have reasonable discretion in establishing the manner in which the board of trade complies with the core principles described in this subsection.

§ 38.150 — Core Principle 2.

(a) In general. The board of trade shall establish, monitor, and enforce compliance with the rules of the contract market, including:

(1) Access requirements;

(2) The terms and conditions of any contracts to be traded on the contract market; and

(3) Rules prohibiting abusive trade practices on the contract market.

(b) Capacity of contract market. The board of trade shall have the capacity to detect, investigate, and apply appropriate sanctions to any person that violates any rule of the contract market.

(c) Requirement of rules. The rules of the contract market shall provide the board of trade with the ability and authority to obtain any necessary information to perform any function described in this section, including the capacity to carry out such international information-sharing agreements, as the Commission may require.

§ 38.151 — Access requirements.

(a) Jurisdiction. Prior to granting any member or market participant access to its markets, a designated contract market must require that the member or market participant consent to its jurisdiction.

(b) Impartial access by members, persons with trading privileges and independent software vendors. A designated contract market must provide its members, persons with trading privileges, and independent software vendors with impartial access to its markets and services, including:

(1) Access criteria that are impartial, transparent, and applied in a non-discriminatory manner; and

(2) Comparable fee structures for members, persons with trading privileges and independent software vendors receiving equal access to, or services from, the designated contract market.

(c) Limitations on access. A designated contract market must establish and impartially enforce rules governing denials, suspensions, and revocations of a member’s and a person with trading privileges’ access privileges to the designated contract market, including when such actions are part of a disciplinary or emergency action by the designated contract market.

§ 38.152 — Abusive trading practices prohibited.

A designated contract market must prohibit abusive trading practices on its markets by members and market participants. Designated contract markets that permit intermediation must prohibit customer-related abuses including, but not limited to, trading ahead of customer orders, trading against customer orders, accommodation trading, and improper cross trading. Specific trading practices that must be prohibited by all designated contract markets include front-running, wash trading, pre-arranged trading (except for certain transactions specifically permitted under part 38 of this chapter), fraudulent trading, money passes, and any other trading practices that a designated contract market deems to be abusive. In addition, a designated contract market also must prohibit any other manipulative or disruptive trading practices prohibited by the Act or by the Commission pursuant to Commission regulation.

§ 38.153 — Capacity to detect and investigate rule violations.

A designated contract market must have arrangements and resources for effective enforcement of its rules. Such arrangements must include the authority to collect information and documents on both a routine and non-routine basis, including the authority to examine books and records kept by the designated contract market’s members and by persons under investigation. A designated contract market’s arrangements and resources must also facilitate the direct supervision of the market and the analysis of data collected to determine whether a rule violation occurred.

§ 38.154 — Regulatory services provided by a third party.

(a) Use of third-party provider permitted. A designated contract market may choose to utilize a registered futures association or another registered entity, as such terms are defined under the Act, (collectively, “regulatory service provider”), for the provision of services to assist in complying with the core principles, as approved by the Commission. Any designated contract market that chooses to utilize a regulatory service provider must ensure that its regulatory service provider has the capacity and resources necessary to provide timely and effective regulatory services, including adequate staff and automated surveillance systems. A designated contract market will at all times remain responsible for the performance of any regulatory services received, for compliance with the designated contract market’s obligations under the Act and Commission regulations, and for the regulatory service provider’s performance on its behalf.

(b) Duty to supervise third party. A designated contract market that elects to utilize a regulatory service provider must retain sufficient compliance staff to supervise the quality and effectiveness of the services provided on its behalf. Compliance staff of the designated contract market must hold regular meetings with the regulatory service provider to discuss ongoing investigations, trading patterns, market participants, and any other matters of regulatory concern. A designated contract market also must conduct periodic reviews of the adequacy and effectiveness of services provided on its behalf. Such reviews must be documented carefully and made available to the Commission upon request.

(c) Regulatory decisions required from the designated contract market. A designated contract market that elects to utilize a regulatory service provider must retain exclusive authority in decisions involving the cancellation of trades, the issuance of disciplinary charges against members or market participants, and the denials of access to the trading platform for disciplinary reasons. A designated contract market may also retain exclusive authority in other areas of its choosing. A designated contract market must document any instances where its actions differ from those recommended by its regulatory service provider, including the reasons for the course of action recommended by the regulatory service provider and the reasons why the designated contract market chose a different course of action.

§ 38.155 — Compliance staff and resources.

(a) Sufficient compliance staff. A designated contract market must establish and maintain sufficient compliance department resources and staff to ensure that it can conduct effective audit trail reviews, trade practice surveillance, market surveillance, and real-time market monitoring. The designated contract market’s compliance staff also must be sufficient to address unusual market or trading events as they arise, and to conduct and complete investigations in a timely manner, as set forth in § 38.158(b) of this part.

(b) Ongoing monitoring of compliance staff resources. A designated contract market must monitor the size and workload of its compliance staff annually, and ensure that its compliance resources and staff are at appropriate levels. In determining the appropriate level of compliance resources and staff, the designated contract market should consider trading volume increases, the number of new products or contracts to be listed for trading, any new responsibilities to be assigned to compliance staff, the results of any internal review demonstrating that work is not completed in an effective or timely manner, and any other factors suggesting the need for increased resources and staff.

§ 38.156 — Automated trade surveillance system.

A designated contract market must maintain an automated trade surveillance system capable of detecting and investigating potential trade practice violations. The automated system must load and process daily orders and trades no later than 24 hours after the completion of the trading day. In addition, the automated trade surveillance system must have the capability to detect and flag specific trade execution patterns and trade anomalies; compute, retain, and compare trading statistics; compute trade gains, losses, and futures-equivalent positions; reconstruct the sequence of market activity; perform market analyses; and support system users to perform in-depth analyses and ad hoc queries of trade-related data.

§ 38.157 — Real-time market monitoring.

A designated contract market must conduct real-time market monitoring of all trading activity on its electronic trading platform(s) to identify disorderly trading and any market or system anomalies. A designated contract market must have the authority to adjust trade prices or cancel trades when necessary to mitigate market disrupting events caused by malfunctions in its electronic trading platform(s) or errors in orders submitted by members and market participants. Any trade price adjustments or trade cancellations must be transparent to the market and subject to standards that are clear, fair, and publicly available.

§ 38.158 — Investigations and investigation reports.

(a) Procedures. A designated contract market must establish and maintain procedures that require its compliance staff to conduct investigations of possible rule violations. An investigation must be commenced upon the receipt of a request from Commission staff or upon the discovery or receipt of information by the designated contract market that indicates a reasonable basis for finding that a violation may have occurred or will occur.

(b) Timeliness. Each compliance staff investigation must be completed in a timely manner. Absent mitigating factors, a timely manner is no later than 12 months after the date that an investigation is opened. Mitigating factors that may reasonably justify an investigation taking longer than 12 months to complete include the complexity of the investigation, the number of firms or individuals involved as potential wrongdoers, the number of potential violations to be investigated, and the volume of documents and data to be examined and analyzed by compliance staff.

(c) Investigation reports when a reasonable basis exists for finding a violation. Compliance staff must submit a written investigation report for disciplinary action in every instance in which compliance staff determines from surveillance or from an investigation that a reasonable basis exists for finding a rule violation. The investigation report must include the reason the investigation was initiated; a summary of the complaint, if any; the relevant facts; compliance staff’s analysis and conclusions; and a recommendation as to whether disciplinary action should be pursued.

(d) Investigation reports when no reasonable basis exists for finding a violation. If after conducting an investigation, compliance staff determines that no reasonable basis exists for finding a violation, it must prepare a written report including the reason(s) the investigation was initiated; a summary of the complaint, if any; the relevant facts; and compliance staff’s analysis and conclusions.

(e) Warning letters. No more than one warning letter may be issued to the same person or entity found to have committed the same rule violation within a rolling twelve month period.

§ 38.159 — Ability to obtain information.

A designated contract market must have the ability and authority to obtain any necessary information to perform any function required under this subpart C of the Commission’s regulations, including the capacity to carry out international information-sharing agreements as the Commission may require. Appropriate information-sharing agreements can be established with other designated contract markets and swap execution facilities, or the Commission can act in conjunction with the designated contract market to carry out such information sharing.

§ 38.160 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.150 of this part.

§ 38.200 — Core Principle 3.

The board of trade shall list on the contract market only contracts that are not readily susceptible to manipulation.

§ 38.201 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance in appendix C of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.200 of this part.

§ 38.250 — Core Principle 4.

The board of trade shall have the capacity and responsibility to prevent manipulation, price distortion, and disruptions of the delivery or cash-settlement process through market surveillance, compliance, and enforcement practices and procedures, including:

(a) Methods for conducting real-time monitoring of trading; and

(b) Comprehensive and accurate trade reconstructions.

§ 38.251 — General requirements.

A designated contract market must:

(a) Collect and evaluate data on individual traders’ market activity on an ongoing basis in order to detect and prevent manipulation, price distortions and, where possible, disruptions of the physical-delivery or cash-settlement process;

(b) Monitor and evaluate general market data in order to detect and prevent manipulative activity that would result in the failure of the market price to reflect the normal forces of supply and demand;

(c) Demonstrate an effective program for conducting real-time monitoring of market conditions, price movements and volumes, in order to detect abnormalities and, when necessary, make a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that are, or threaten to be, disruptive to the market; and

(d) Demonstrate the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct daily trading activity for the purposes of detecting trading abuses and violations of exchange-set position limits, including those that may have occurred intraday.

(e) Adopt and implement rules governing market participants subject to its jurisdiction to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions or system anomalies associated with electronic trading;

(f) Subject all electronic orders to exchange-based pre-trade risk controls to prevent, detect, and mitigate market disruptions or system anomalies associated with electronic trading; and

(g) Promptly notify Commission staff of any significant market disruptions on its electronic trading platform(s) and provide timely information on the causes and remediation.

§ 38.252 — Additional requirements for physical-delivery contracts.

For physical-delivery contracts, the designated contract market must demonstrate that it:

(a) Monitors a contract’s terms and conditions as they relate to the underlying commodity market and to the convergence between the contract price and the price of the underlying commodity and show a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that are interfering with convergence; and

(b) Monitors the supply of the commodity and its adequacy to satisfy the delivery requirements and make a good-faith effort to resolve conditions that threaten the adequacy of supplies or the delivery process.

§ 38.253 — Additional requirements for cash-settled contracts.

(a) For cash-settled contracts, the designated contract market must demonstrate that it:

(1) Monitors the pricing of the index to which the contract will be settled; and

(2) Monitors the continued appropriateness of the methodology for deriving the index and makes a good-faith effort to resolve conditions, including amending contract terms where necessary, where there is a threat of market manipulation, disruptions, or distortions.

(b) If a contract listed on a designated contract market is settled by reference to the price of a contract or commodity traded in another venue, including a price or index derived from prices on another designated contract market, the designated contract market must have rules or agreements that allow the designated contract market access to information on the activities of its traders in the reference market.

§ 38.254 — Ability to obtain information.

(a) The designated contract market must have rules that require traders in its contracts to keep records of their trading, including records of their activity in the underlying commodity and related derivatives markets, and make such records available, upon request, to the designated contract market.

(b) A designated contract market with participants trading through intermediaries must either use a comprehensive large-trader reporting system (LTRS) or be able to demonstrate that it can obtain position data from other sources in order to conduct an effective surveillance program.

§ 38.255 — Risk controls for trading.

The designated contract market must establish and maintain risk control mechanisms to prevent and reduce the potential risk of price distortions and market disruptions, including, but not limited to, market restrictions that pause or halt trading in market conditions prescribed by the designated contract market.

§ 38.256 — Trade reconstruction.

The designated contract market must have the ability to comprehensively and accurately reconstruct all trading on its trading facility. All audit-trail data and reconstructions must be made available to the Commission in a form, manner, and time that is acceptable to the Commission.

§ 38.257 — Regulatory service provider.

A designated contract market must comply with the regulations in this subpart through a dedicated regulatory department, or by delegation of that function to a registered futures association or a registered entity (collectively, “regulatory service provider”), as such terms are defined in the Act and over which the designated contract market has supervisory authority.

§ 38.258 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.250 of this part.

§ 38.300 — Core Principle 5.

To reduce the potential threat of market manipulation or congestion (especially during trading in the delivery month), the board of trade shall adopt for each contract of the board of trade, as is necessary and appropriate, position limitations or position accountability for speculators. For any contract that is subject to a position limitation established by the Commission, pursuant to section 4a(a), the board of trade shall set the position limitation of the board of trade at a level not higher than the position limitation established by the Commission.

§ 38.301 — Position limitations and accountability.

A designated contract market must meet the requirements of parts 150 and 151 of this chapter, as applicable.

§ 38.350 — Core Principle 6.

The board of trade, in consultation or cooperation with the Commission, shall adopt rules to provide for the exercise of emergency authority, as is necessary and appropriate, including the authority:

(a) To liquidate or transfer open positions in any contract;

(b) To suspend or curtail trading in any contract; and

(c) To require market participants in any contract to meet special margin requirements.

§ 38.351 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and/or acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.350.

§ 38.400 — Core Principle 7.

The board of trade shall make available to market authorities, market participants, and the public accurate information concerning:

(a) The terms and conditions of the contracts of the contract market; and

(b)(1) The rules, regulations and mechanisms for executing transactions on or through the facilities of the contract market, and

(2) The rules and specifications describing the operation of the contract market’s:

(i) Electronic matching platform, or

(ii) Trade execution facility.

§ 38.401 — General requirements.

(a) General. (1) A designated contract market must have procedures, arrangements and resources for disclosing to the Commission, market participants and the public accurate information pertaining to:

(i) Contract terms and conditions;

(ii) Rules and regulations pertaining to the trading mechanisms; and

(iii) Rules and specifications pertaining to operation of the electronic matching platform or trade execution facility.

(2) Through the procedures, arrangements and resources required in paragraph (a) of this section, the designated contract market must ensure public dissemination of information pertaining to new product listings, new rules, rule amendments or other changes to previously-disclosed information, in accordance with the timeline provided in paragraph (c) of this section.

(3) A designated contract market shall meet the requirements of this paragraph (a), by placing the information described in this paragraph (a) on the designated contract market’s Web site within the time prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section.

(b) Accuracy requirement. With respect to any communication with the Commission, and any information required to be transmitted or made available to market participants and the public, including on its Web site or otherwise, a designated contract market must provide information that it believes, to the best of its knowledge, is accurate and complete, and must not omit material information.

(c) Notice of regulatory submissions. (1) A designated contract market, in making available on its Web site information pertaining to new product listings, new rules, rule amendments or other changes to previously-disclosed information, must place such information and submissions on its Web site concurrent with the filing of such information or submissions with the Secretary of the Commission.

(2) To the extent that a designated contract market requests confidential treatment of any information filed with the Secretary of the Commission, the designated contract market must post on its Web site the public version of such filing or submission.

(d) Rulebook. A designated contract market must ensure that the rulebook posted on its Web site is accurate, complete, current and readily accessible to the public. A designated contract market must publish or post in its rulebook all new or amended rules, both substantive and non-substantive, on the date of implementation of such new or amended rule, on the date a new product is listed, or on the date any changes to previously-disclosed information take effect.

§ 38.450 — Core Principle 8.

The board of trade shall make public daily information on settlement prices, volume, open interest, and opening and closing ranges for actively traded contracts on the contract market.

§ 38.451 — Reporting of trade information.

A designated contract market must meet the reporting requirements set forth in part 16 of this chapter.

§ 38.500 — Core Principle 9.

The board of trade shall provide a competitive, open, and efficient market and mechanism for executing transactions that protects the price discovery process of trading in the centralized market of the board of trade. The rules of the board of trade may authorize, for bona fide business purposes:

(a) Transfer trades or office trades;

(b) An exchange of:

(1) Futures in connection with a cash commodity transaction;

(2) Futures for cash commodities; or

(3) Futures for swaps; or

(c) A futures commission merchant, acting as principal or agent, to enter into or confirm the execution of a contract for the purchase or sale of a commodity for future delivery if the contract is reported, recorded, or cleared in accordance with the rules of the contract market or a derivatives clearing organization.

§ 38.550 — Core Principle 10.

The board of trade shall maintain rules and procedures to provide for the recording and safe storage of all identifying trade information in a manner that enables the contract market to use the information:

(a) To assist in the prevention of customer and market abuses; and

(b) To provide evidence of any violations of the rules of the contract market.

§ 38.551 — Audit trail required.

A designated contract market must capture and retain all audit trail data necessary to detect, investigate, and prevent customer and market abuses. Such data must be sufficient to reconstruct all transactions within a reasonable period of time and to provide evidence of any violations of the rules of the designated contract market. An acceptable audit trail must also permit the designated contract market to track a customer order from the time of receipt through fill, allocation, or other disposition, and must include both order and trade data.

§ 38.552 — Elements of an acceptable audit trail program.

(a) Original source documents. A designated contract market’s audit trail must include original source documents. Original source documents include unalterable, sequentially identified records on which trade execution information is originally recorded, whether recorded manually or electronically. Records for customer orders (whether filled, unfilled, or cancelled, each of which shall be retained or electronically captured) must reflect the terms of the order, an account identifier that relates back to the account(s) owner(s), and the time of order entry. For open-outcry trades, the time of report of execution of the order shall also be captured.

(b) Transaction history database. A designated contract market’s audit trail program must include an electronic transaction history database. An adequate transaction history database includes a history of all trades executed via open outcry or via entry into an electronic trading system, and all orders entered into an electronic trading system, including all order modifications and cancellations. An adequate transaction history database also includes:

(1) All data that are input into the trade entry or matching system for the transaction to match and clear;

(2) The customer type indicator code;

(3) Timing and sequencing data adequate to reconstruct trading; and

(4) Identification of each account to which fills are allocated.

(c) Electronic analysis capability. A designated contract market’s audit trail program must include electronic analysis capability with respect to all audit trail data in the transaction history database. Such electronic analysis capability must ensure that the designated contract market has the ability to reconstruct trading and identify possible trading violations with respect to both customer and market abuse.

(d) Safe storage capability. A designated contract market’s audit trail program must include the capability to safely store all audit trail data retained in its transaction history database. Such safe storage capability must include the capability to store all data in the database in a manner that protects it from unauthorized alteration, as well as from accidental erasure or other loss. Data must be retained in accordance with the recordkeeping requirements of Core Principle 18 and the associated regulations in subpart S of this part.

§ 38.553 — Enforcement of audit trail requirements.

(a) Annual audit trail and recordkeeping reviews. A designated contract market must enforce its audit trail and recordkeeping requirements through at least annual reviews of all members and persons and firms subject to designated contract market recordkeeping rules to verify their compliance with the contract market’s audit trail and recordkeeping requirements. Such reviews must include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) For electronic trading, audit trail and recordkeeping reviews must include reviews of randomly selected samples of front-end audit trail data for order routing systems; a review of the process by which user identifications are assigned and user identification records are maintained; a review of usage patterns associated with user identifications to monitor for violations of user identification rules; and reviews of account numbers and customer type indicator codes in trade records to test for accuracy and improper use.

(2) For open outcry trading, audit trail and recordkeeping reviews must include reviews of members’ and market participants’ compliance with the designated contract market’s trade timing, order ticket, and trading card requirements.

(b) Enforcement program required. A designated contract market must establish a program for effective enforcement of its audit trail and recordkeeping requirements for both electronic and open-outcry trading, as applicable. An effective program must identify members and persons and firms subject to designated contract market recordkeeping rules that have failed to maintain high levels of compliance with such requirements, and levy meaningful sanctions when deficiencies are found. Sanctions must be sufficient to deter recidivist behavior. No more than one warning letter may be issued to the same person or entity found to have committed the same rule violation within a rolling twelve month period.

§ 38.600 — Core Principle 11.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce:

(a) Rules and procedures for ensuring the financial integrity of transactions entered into on or through the facilities of the contract market (including the clearance and settlement of the transactions with a derivatives clearing organization); and

(b) Rules to ensure:

(1) The financial integrity of any:

(i) Futures commission merchant, and

(ii) Introducing broker; and

(2) The protection of customer funds.

§ 38.601 — Mandatory clearing.

(a) Transactions executed on or through the designated contract market must be cleared through a Commission-registered derivatives clearing organization, in accordance with the provisions of part 39 of this chapter. Notwithstanding the foregoing, transactions in security futures products executed on or through the designated contract market may alternatively be cleared through a clearing agency, registered pursuant to section 17A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

(b) A designated contract market must coordinate with each derivatives clearing organization to which it submits transactions for clearing, in the development of rules and procedures to facilitate prompt and efficient transaction processing in accordance with the requirements of § 39.12(b)(7) of this chapter.

§ 38.602 — General financial integrity.

A designated contract market must provide for the financial integrity of its transactions by establishing and maintaining appropriate minimum financial standards for its members and non-intermediated market participants.

§ 38.603 — Protection of customer funds.

A designated contract market must have rules concerning the protection of customer funds. These rules shall address appropriate minimum financial standards for intermediaries, the segregation of customer and proprietary funds, the custody of customer funds, the investment standards for customer funds, intermediary default procedures and related recordkeeping. A designated contract market must review the default rules and procedures of the derivatives clearing organization that clears for such designated contract market to wind down operations, transfer customers, or otherwise protect customers in the event of a default of a clearing member or the derivatives clearing organization.

§ 38.604 — Financial surveillance.

A designated contract market must monitor members’ compliance with the designated contract market’s minimum financial standards and, therefore, must routinely receive and promptly review financial and related information from its members, as well as continuously monitor the positions of members and their customers. A designated contract market must have rules that prescribe minimum capital requirements for member futures commission merchants and introducing brokers. A designated contract market must:

(a) Continually survey the obligations of each futures commission merchant created by the positions of its customers;

(b) As appropriate, compare those obligations to the financial resources of the futures commission merchant; and

(c) Take appropriate steps to use this information to protect customer funds.

§ 38.605 — Requirements for financial surveillance program.

A designated contract market’s financial surveillance program for futures commission merchants, retail foreign exchange dealers, and introducing brokers must comply with the requirements of § 1.52 of this chapter to assess the compliance of such entities with applicable contract market rules and Commission regulations.

§ 38.606 — Financial regulatory services provided by a third party.

A designated contract market may comply with the requirements of § 38.604 (Financial Surveillance) and § 38.605 (Requirements for Financial Surveillance Program) of this part through the regulatory services of a registered futures association or a registered entity (collectively, “regulatory service provider”), as such terms are defined under the Act. A designated contract market must ensure that its regulatory service provider has the capacity and resources necessary to provide timely and effective regulatory services, including adequate staff and appropriate surveillance systems. A designated contract market will at all times remain responsible for compliance with its obligations under the Act and Commission regulations, and for the regulatory service provider’s performance on its behalf. Regulatory services must be provided under a written agreement with a regulatory services provider that shall specifically document the services to be performed as well as the capacity and resources of the regulatory service provider with respect to the services to be performed.

§ 38.607 — Direct access.

A designated contract market that permits direct electronic access by customers (i.e., allowing customers of futures commission merchants to enter orders directly into a designated contract market’s trade matching system for execution) must have in place effective systems and controls reasonably designed to facilitate the FCM’s management of financial risk, such as automated pre-trade controls that enable member futures commission merchants to implement appropriate financial risk limits. A designated contract market must implement and enforce rules requiring the member futures commission merchants to use the provided systems and controls.

§ 38.650 — Core Principle 12.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce rules:

(a) To protect markets and market participants from abusive practices committed by any party, including abusive practices committed by a party acting as an agent for a participant; and

(b) To promote fair and equitable trading on the contract market.

§ 38.651 — Protection of markets and market participants.

A designated contract market must have and enforce rules that are designed to promote fair and equitable trading and to protect the market and market participants from abusive practices including fraudulent, noncompetitive or unfair actions, committed by any party. The designated contract market must have methods and resources appropriate to the nature of the trading system and the structure of the market to detect trade practice and market abuses and to discipline such behavior, in accordance with Core Principles 2 and 4, and the associated regulations in subparts C and E of this part, respectively. The designated contract market also must provide a competitive, open and efficient market and mechanism for executing transactions in accordance with Core Principle 9 and the associated regulations under subpart J of this part.

§ 38.700 — Core Principle 13.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce disciplinary procedures that authorize the board of trade to discipline, suspend, or expel members or market participants that violate the rules of the board of trade, or similar methods for performing the same functions, including delegation of the functions to third parties.

§ 38.701 — Enforcement staff.

A designated contract market must establish and maintain sufficient enforcement staff and resources to effectively and promptly prosecute possible rule violations within the disciplinary jurisdiction of the contract market. A designated contract market must also monitor the size and workload of its enforcement staff annually, and ensure that its enforcement resources and staff are at appropriate levels. The enforcement staff may not include either members of the designated contract market or persons whose interests conflict with their enforcement duties. A member of the enforcement staff may not operate under the direction or control of any person or persons with trading privileges at the contract market. A designated contract market’s enforcement staff may operate as part of the designated contract market’s compliance department.

§ 38.702 — Disciplinary panels.

A designated contract market must establish one or more disciplinary panels that are authorized to fulfill their obligations under the rules of this subpart. Disciplinary panels must meet the composition requirements of part 40 of this chapter, and must not include any members of the designated contract market’s compliance staff or any person involved in adjudicating any other stage of the same proceeding.

§ 38.703 — Notice of charges.

If compliance staff authorized by a designated contract market or a designated contract market disciplinary panel determines that a reasonable basis exists for finding a violation and that adjudication is warranted, it must direct that the person or entity alleged to have committed the violation be served with a notice of charges and must proceed in accordance with the rules of this section. A notice of charges must adequately state the acts, conduct, or practices in which the respondent is alleged to have engaged; state the rule, or rules, alleged to have been violated (or about to be violated); and prescribe the period within which a hearing on the charges may be requested. The notice must also advise that the charged respondent is entitled, upon request, to a hearing on the charges.

§ 38.704 — Right to representation.

Upon being served with a notice of charges, a respondent must have the right to be represented by legal counsel or any other representative of its choosing in all succeeding stages of the disciplinary process, except any member of the designated contract market’s board of directors or disciplinary panel, any employee of the designated contract market, or any person substantially related to the underlying investigations, such as material witness or respondent.

§ 38.705 — Answer to charges.

A respondent must be given a reasonable period of time to file an answer to a notice of charges. The rules of a designated contract market governing the requirements and timeliness of a respondent’s answer to charges must be fair, equitable, and publicly available.

§ 38.706 — Denial of charges and right to hearing.

In every instance where a respondent has requested a hearing on a charge that is denied, or on a sanction set by the disciplinary panel, the respondent must be given an opportunity for a hearing in accordance with the requirements of § 38.707 of this part.

§ 38.707 — Hearings.

(a) A designated contract market must adopt rules that provide for the following minimum requirements for any hearing conducted pursuant to a notice of charges:

(1) The hearing must be fair, must be conducted before members of the disciplinary panel, and must be promptly convened after reasonable notice to the respondent. The formal rules of evidence need not apply; nevertheless, the procedures for the hearing may not be so informal as to deny a fair hearing. No member of the disciplinary panel for the matter may have a financial, personal, or other direct interest in the matter under consideration.

(2) In advance of the hearing, the respondent must be entitled to examine all books, documents, or other evidence in the possession or under the control of the designated contract market. The designated contract market may withhold documents that are privileged or constitute attorney work product, documents that were prepared by an employee of the designated contract market but will not be offered in evidence in the disciplinary proceedings, documents that may disclose a technique or guideline used in examinations, investigations, or enforcements proceedings, and documents that disclose the identity of a confidential source.

(3) The designated contract market’s enforcement and compliance staffs must be parties to the hearing, and the enforcement staff must present their case on those charges and sanctions that are the subject of the hearing.

(4) The respondent must be entitled to appear personally at the hearing, must be entitled to cross-examine any persons appearing as witnesses at the hearing, and must be entitled to call witnesses and to present such evidence as may be relevant to the charges.

(5) The designated contract market must require persons within its jurisdiction who are called as witnesses to participate in the hearing and to produce evidence. It must make reasonable efforts to secure the presence of all other persons called as witnesses whose testimony would be relevant.

(6) If the respondent has requested a hearing, a copy of the hearing must be made and must become a part of the record of the proceeding. The record must be one that is capable of being accurately transcribed; however, it need not be transcribed unless the transcript is requested by Commission staff or the respondent, the decision is appealed pursuant to the rules of the designated contract market, or is reviewed by the Commission pursuant to section 8c of the Act or part 9 of this chapter. In all other instances a summary record of a hearing is permitted.

(b) [Reserved]

§ 38.708 — Decisions.

Promptly following a hearing conducted in accordance with § 38.707 of this part, the disciplinary panel must render a written decision based upon the weight of the evidence contained in the record of the proceeding and must provide a copy to the respondent. The decision must include:

(a) The notice of charges or a summary of the charges;

(b) The answer, if any, or a summary of the answer;

(c) A summary of the evidence produced at the hearing or, where appropriate, incorporation by reference of the investigation report;

(d) A statement of findings and conclusions with respect to each charge, and a complete explanation of the evidentiary and other basis for such findings and conclusions with respect to each charge;

(e) An indication of each specific rule that the respondent was found to have violated; and

(f) A declaration of all sanctions imposed against the respondent, including the basis for such sanctions and the effective date of such sanctions.

§ 38.709 — Final decisions.

Each designated contract market must establish rules setting forth when a decision rendered pursuant to this section will become the final decision of such designated contract market.

§ 38.710 — Disciplinary sanctions.

All disciplinary sanctions imposed by a designated contract market or its disciplinary panels must be commensurate with the violations committed and must be clearly sufficient to deter recidivism or similar violations by other market participants. All disciplinary sanctions, including sanctions imposed pursuant to an accepted settlement offer, must take into account the respondent’s disciplinary history. In the event of demonstrated customer harm, any disciplinary sanction must also include full customer restitution, except where the amount of restitution, or to whom it should be provided, cannot be reasonably determined.

§ 38.711 — Warning letters.

Where a rule violation is found to have occurred, no more than one warning letter may be issued per rolling 12-month period for the same violation.

§ 38.712 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.700 of this part.

§ 38.750 — Core Principle 14.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce rules regarding, and provide facilities for alternative dispute resolution as appropriate for, market participants and any market intermediaries.

§ 38.751 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.750 of this part.

§ 38.800 — Core Principle 15.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce appropriate fitness standards for directors, members of any disciplinary committee, members of the contract market, and any other person with direct access to the facility (including any party affiliated with any person described in this paragraph).

§ 38.801 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.800 of this part.

§ 38.850 — Core Principle 16.

The board of trade shall establish and enforce rules:

(a) To minimize conflicts of interest in the decision-making process of the contract market; and

(b) To establish a process for resolving conflicts of interest described in paragraph (a) of this section.

§ 38.851 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and/or acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.850 of this part.

§ 38.900 — Core Principle 17.

The governance arrangements of the board of trade shall be designed to permit consideration of the views of market participants.

§ 38.950 — Core Principle 18.

The board of trade shall maintain records of all activities relating to the business of the contract market:

(a) In a form and manner that is acceptable to the Commission; and

(b) For a period of at least 5 years.

§ 38.951 — Additional sources for compliance.

A designated contract market must maintain such records, including trade records and investigatory and disciplinary files, in accordance with the requirements of § 1.31 of this chapter, and in accordance with part 45 of this chapter, if applicable.

§ 38.1000 — Core Principle 19.

Unless necessary or appropriate to achieve the purposes of this Act, the board of trade shall not:

(a) Adopt any rule or taking any action that results in any unreasonable restraint of trade; or

(b) Impose any material anticompetitive burden on trading on the contract market.

§ 38.1001 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.1000 of this part.

§ 38.1050 — Core Principle 20.

Each designated contract market shall:

(a) Establish and maintain a program of risk analysis and oversight to identify and minimize sources of operational risk, through the development of appropriate controls and procedures, and the development of automated systems, that are reliable, secure, and have adequate scalable capacity;

(b) Establish and maintain emergency procedures, backup facilities, and a plan for disaster recovery that allow for the timely recovery and resumption of operations and the fulfillment of the responsibilities and obligations of the board of trade; and

(c) Periodically conduct tests to verify that backup resources are sufficient to ensure continued order processing and trade matching, transmission of matched orders to a designated clearing organization for clearing, price reporting, market surveillance, and maintenance of a comprehensive and accurate audit trail.

§ 38.1051 — General requirements.

(a) A designated contract market’s program of risk analysis and oversight with respect to its operations and automated systems shall address each of the following categories of risk analysis and oversight:

(1) Enterprise risk management and governance. This category includes, but is not limited to: Assessment, mitigation, and monitoring of security and technology risk; security and technology capital planning and investment; board of directors and management oversight of technology and security; information technology audit and controls assessments; remediation of deficiencies; and any other elements of enterprise risk management and governance included in generally accepted best practices.

(2) Information security. This category includes, but is not limited to, controls relating to: Access to systems and data (including least privilege, separation of duties, account monitoring and control); user and device identification and authentication; security awareness training; audit log maintenance, monitoring, and analysis; media protection; personnel security and screening; automated system and communications protection (including network port control, boundary defenses, encryption); system and information integrity (including malware defenses, software integrity monitoring); vulnerability management; penetration testing; security incident response and management; and any other elements of information security included in generally accepted best practices.

(3) Business continuity-disaster recovery planning and resources. This category includes, but is not limited to: Regular, periodic testing and review of business continuity-disaster recovery capabilities, the controls and capabilities described in paragraphs (c), (d), (j), and (k) of this section; and any other elements of business continuity-disaster recovery planning and resources included in generally accepted best practices.

(4) Capacity and performance planning. This category includes, but is not limited to: Controls for monitoring the designated contract market’s systems to ensure adequate scalable capacity (including testing, monitoring, and analysis of current and projected future capacity and performance, and of possible capacity degradation due to planned automated system changes); and any other elements of capacity and performance planning included in generally accepted best practices.

(5) Systems operations. This category includes, but is not limited to: System maintenance; configuration management (including baseline configuration, configuration change and patch management, least functionality, inventory of authorized and unauthorized devices and software); event and problem response and management; and any other elements of system operations included in generally accepted best practices.

(6) Systems development and quality assurance. This category includes, but is not limited to: Requirements development; pre-production and regression testing; change management procedures and approvals; outsourcing and vendor management; training in secure coding practices; and any other elements of systems development and quality assurance included in generally accepted best practices.

(7) Physical security and environmental controls. This category includes, but is not limited to: Physical access and monitoring; power, telecommunication, and environmental controls; fire protection; and any other elements of physical security and environmental controls included in generally accepted best practices.

(b) In addressing the categories of risk analysis and oversight required under paragraph (a) of this section, a designated contract market shall follow generally accepted standards and best practices with respect to the development, operation, reliability, security, and capacity of automated systems.

(c) A designated contract market shall maintain a business continuity-disaster recovery plan and business continuity-disaster recovery resources, emergency procedures, and backup facilities sufficient to enable timely recovery and resumption of its operations and resumption of its ongoing fulfillment of its responsibilities and obligations as a designated contract market following any disruption of its operations. Such responsibilities and obligations include, without limitation: Order processing and trade matching; transmission of matched orders to a designated clearing organization for clearing; price reporting; market surveillance; and maintenance of a comprehensive audit trail. The designated contract market’s business continuity-disaster recovery plan and resources generally should enable resumption of trading and clearing of the designated contract market’s products during the next business day following the disruption. Designated contract markets determined by the Commission to be critical financial markets are subject to more stringent requirements in this regard, set forth in § 40.9 of this chapter. Electronic trading is an acceptable backup for open outcry trading in the event of a disruption. A designated contract market shall update its business continuity-disaster recovery plan and emergency procedures at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis, but at a minimum no less frequently than annually.

(d) A designated contract market that is not determined by the Commission to be a critical financial market satisfies the requirement to be able to resume trading and clearing during the next business day following a disruption by maintaining either:

(1) Infrastructure and personnel resources of its own that are sufficient to ensure timely recovery and resumption of its operations and resumption of its ongoing fulfillment of its responsibilities and obligations as a designated contract market following any disruption of its operations; or

(2) Contractual arrangements with other designated contract markets or disaster recovery service providers, as appropriate, that are sufficient to ensure continued trading and clearing of the designated contract market’s products, and ongoing fulfillment of all of the designated contract market’s responsibilities and obligations with respect to those products, in the event that a disruption renders the designated contract market temporarily or permanently unable to satisfy this requirement on its own behalf.

(e) A designated contract market must notify Commission staff promptly of all:

(1) Electronic trading halts and significant systems malfunctions;

(2) Cyber security incidents or targeted threats that actually or potentially jeopardize automated system operation, reliability, security, or capacity; and

(3) Activation of the designated contract market’s business continuity-disaster recovery plan.

(f) A designated contract market must give Commission staff timely advance notice of all material:

(1) Planned changes to automated systems that may impact the reliability, security, or adequate scalable capacity of such systems; and

(2) Planned changes to the designated contract market’s program of risk analysis and oversight.

(g) As part of a designated contract market’s obligation to produce books and records in accordance with § 1.31 of this chapter, Core Principle 18 (Recordkeeping), and §§ 38.950 and 38.951, a designated contract market shall provide to the Commission the following system safeguards-related books and records, promptly upon the request of any Commission representative:

(1) Current copies of its business continuity-disaster recovery plans and other emergency procedures;

(2) All assessments of its operational risks or system safeguards-related controls;

(3) All reports concerning system safeguards testing and assessment required by this chapter, whether performed by independent contractors or by employees of the designated contract market; and

(4) All other books and records requested by Commission staff in connection with Commission oversight of system safeguards pursuant to the Act or Commission regulations, or in connection with Commission maintenance of a current profile of the designated contract market’s automated systems.

(5) Nothing in this paragraph (g) shall be interpreted as reducing or limiting in any way a designated contract market’s obligation to comply with Core Principle 18 (Recordkeeping) or with § 1.31 of this chapter, or with § 38.950 or § 38.951.

(h) A designated contract market shall conduct regular, periodic, objective testing and review of its automated systems to ensure that they are reliable, secure, and have adequate scalable capacity. It shall also conduct regular, periodic testing and review of its business continuity-disaster recovery capabilities. Such testing and review shall include, without limitation, all of the types of testing set forth in this paragraph (h). A covered designated contract market, as defined in this section, shall be subject to the additional requirements regarding minimum testing frequency and independent contractor testing set forth in this paragraph (h).

(1) Definitions. As used in paragraph (h) of this section:

Controls means the safeguards or countermeasures employed by the designated contract market in order to protect the reliability, security, or capacity of its automated systems or the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of its data and information, and in order to enable the designated contract market to fulfill its statutory and regulatory responsibilities.

Controls testing means assessment of the designated contract market’s controls to determine whether such controls are implemented correctly, are operating as intended, and are enabling the designated contract market to meet the requirements established by this section.

Covered designated contract market means a designated contract market whose annual total trading volume in calendar year 2015, or in any subsequent calendar year, is five percent (5%) or more of the combined annual total trading volume of all designated contract markets regulated by the Commission for the year in question, based on annual total trading volume information provided to the Commission by each designated contract market pursuant to the procedure set forth in this chapter. A covered designated contract market that has annual total trading volume of less than five percent (5%) of the combined annual total trading volume of all designated contract markets regulated by the Commission for three consecutive calendar years ceases to be a covered designated contract market as of March 1 of the calendar year following such three consecutive calendar years.

Enterprise technology risk assessment means a written assessment that includes, but is not limited to, an analysis of threats and vulnerabilities in the context of mitigating controls. An enterprise technology risk assessment identifies, estimates, and prioritizes risks to designated contract market operations or assets, or to market participants, individuals, or other entities, resulting from impairment of the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and information or the reliability, security, or capacity of automated systems.

External penetration testing means attempts to penetrate the designated contract market’s automated systems from outside the systems’ boundaries to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. Methods of conducting external penetration testing include, but are not limited to, methods for circumventing the security features of an automated system.

Internal penetration testing means attempts to penetrate the designated contract market’s automated systems from inside the systems’ boundaries, to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. Methods of conducting internal penetration testing include, but are not limited to, methods for circumventing the security features of an automated system.

Key controls means those controls that an appropriate risk analysis determines are either critically important for effective system safeguards or intended to address risks that evolve or change more frequently and therefore require more frequent review to ensure their continuing effectiveness in addressing such risks.

Security incident means a cyber security or physical security event that actually jeopardizes or has a significant likelihood of jeopardizing automated system operation, reliability, security, or capacity, or the availability, confidentiality or integrity of data.

Security incident response plan means a written plan documenting the designated contract market’s policies, controls, procedures, and resources for identifying, responding to, mitigating, and recovering from security incidents, and the roles and responsibilities of its management, staff and independent contractors in responding to security incidents. A security incident response plan may be a separate document or a business continuity-disaster recovery plan section or appendix dedicated to security incident response.

Security incident response plan testing means testing of a designated contract market’s security incident response plan to determine the plan’s effectiveness, identify its potential weaknesses or deficiencies, enable regular plan updating and improvement, and maintain organizational preparedness and resiliency with respect to security incidents. Methods of conducting security incident response plan testing may include, but are not limited to, checklist completion, walk-through or table-top exercises, simulations, and comprehensive exercises.

Vulnerability testing means testing of a designated contract market’s automated systems to determine what information may be discoverable through a reconnaissance analysis of those systems and what vulnerabilities may be present on those systems.

(2) Vulnerability testing. A designated contract market shall conduct vulnerability testing of a scope sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct such vulnerability testing at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct such vulnerability testing no less frequently than quarterly.

(ii) Such vulnerability testing shall include automated vulnerability scanning, which shall follow generally accepted best practices.

(iii) A designated contract market shall conduct vulnerability testing by engaging independent contractors or by using employees of the designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(3) External penetration testing. A designated contract market shall conduct external penetration testing of a scope sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct such external penetration testing at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct such external penetration testing no less frequently than annually.

(ii) A covered designated contract market shall engage independent contractors to conduct the required annual external penetration test. The covered designated contract market may conduct other external penetration testing by using employees of the covered designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(iii) A designated contract market which is not a covered designated contract market shall conduct external penetration testing by engaging independent contractors or by using employees of the designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(4) Internal penetration testing. A designated contract market shall conduct internal penetration testing of a scope sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct such internal penetration testing at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct such internal penetration testing no less frequently than annually.

(ii) A designated contract market shall conduct internal penetration testing by engaging independent contractors, or by using employees of the designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(5) Controls testing. A designated contract market shall conduct controls testing of a scope sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct controls testing, which includes testing of each control included in its program of risk analysis and oversight, at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. Such testing may be conducted on a rolling basis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct testing of its key controls no less frequently than every three years. The covered designated contract market may conduct testing of its key controls on a rolling basis over the course of three years or the period determined by such risk analysis, whichever is shorter.

(ii) A covered designated contract market shall engage independent contractors to test and assess the key controls included in its program of risk analysis and oversight no less frequently than every three years. The covered designated contract market may conduct any other controls testing required by this section by using independent contractors or employees of the covered designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(iii) A designated contract market which is not a covered designated contract market shall conduct controls testing by engaging independent contractors or by using employees of the designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being tested.

(6) Security incident response plan testing. A designated contract market shall conduct security incident response plan testing sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct such security incident response plan testing at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct such security incident response plan testing no less frequently than annually.

(ii) A designated contract market’s security incident response plan shall include, without limitation, the designated contract market’s definition and classification of security incidents, its policies and procedures for reporting security incidents and for internal and external communication and information sharing regarding security incidents, and the hand-off and escalation points in its security incident response process.

(iii) A designated contract market may coordinate its security incident response plan testing with other testing required by this section or with testing of its other business continuity-disaster recovery and crisis management plans.

(iv) A designated contract market may conduct security incident response plan testing by engaging independent contractors or by using employees of the designated contract market.

(7) Enterprise technology risk assessment. A designated contract market shall conduct enterprise technology risk assessment of a scope sufficient to satisfy the requirements set forth in paragraph (k) of this section.

(i) A designated contract market shall conduct an enterprise technology risk assessment at a frequency determined by an appropriate risk analysis. At a minimum, a covered designated contract market shall conduct an enterprise technology risk assessment no less frequently than annually. A designated contract market that has conducted an enterprise technology risk assessment that complies with this section may conduct subsequent assessments by updating the previous assessment.

(ii) A designated contract market may conduct enterprise technology risk assessments by using independent contractors or employees of the designated contract market who are not responsible for development or operation of the systems or capabilities being assessed.

(i) To the extent practicable, a designated contract market shall:

(1) Coordinate its business continuity-disaster recovery plan with those of the members and other market participants upon whom it depends to provide liquidity, in a manner adequate to enable effective resumption of activity in its markets following a disruption causing activation of the designated contract market’s business continuity-disaster recovery plan;

(2) Initiate and coordinate periodic, synchronized testing of its business continuity-disaster recovery plan and the business continuity-disaster recovery plans of the members and other market participants upon whom it depends to provide liquidity; and

(3) Ensure that its business continuity-disaster recovery plan takes into account the business continuity-disaster recovery plans of its telecommunications, power, water, and other essential service providers.

(j) Part 46 of this chapter governs the obligations of those registered entities that the Commission has determined to be critical financial markets, with respect to maintenance and geographic dispersal of disaster recovery resources sufficient to meet a same-day recovery time objective in the event of a wide-scale disruption. Section 40.9 of this chapter establishes the requirements for core principle compliance in that respect.

(k) Scope of testing and assessment. The scope for all system safeguards testing and assessment required by this part shall be broad enough to include the testing of automated systems and controls that the designated contract market’s required program of risk analysis and oversight and its current cybersecurity threat analysis indicate is necessary to identify risks and vulnerabilities that could enable an intruder or unauthorized user or insider to:

(1) Interfere with the designated contract market’s operations or with fulfillment of its statutory and regulatory responsibilities;

(2) Impair or degrade the reliability, security, or adequate scalable capacity of the designated contract market’s automated systems;

(3) Add to, delete, modify, exfiltrate, or compromise the integrity of any data related to the designated contract market’s regulated activities; or

(4) Undertake any other unauthorized action affecting the designated contract market’s regulated activities or the hardware or software used in connection with those activities.

(l) Internal reporting and review. Both the senior management and the Board of Directors of a designated contract market shall receive and review reports setting forth the results of the testing and assessment required by this section. A designated contract market shall establish and follow appropriate procedures for the remediation of issues identified through such review, as provided in paragraph (m) of this section, and for evaluation of the effectiveness of testing and assessment protocols.

(m) Remediation. A designated contract market shall identify and document the vulnerabilities and deficiencies in its systems revealed by the testing and assessment required by this section. The designated contract market shall conduct and document an appropriate analysis of the risks presented by such vulnerabilities and deficiencies, to determine and document whether to remediate or accept the associated risk. When the designated contract market determines to remediate a vulnerability or deficiency, it must remediate in a timely manner given the nature and magnitude of the associated risk.

(n) Required production of annual total trading volume. (1) As used in this paragraph, annual total trading volume means the total number of all contracts traded on or pursuant to the rules of a designated contract market during a calendar year.

(2) Each designated contract market shall provide to the Commission for calendar year 2015 and each calendar year thereafter its annual total trading volume, providing this information for 2015 within 30 calendar days of the effective date of the final version of this rule, and for 2016 and subsequent years by January 31 of the following calendar year. For calendar year 2015 and each calendar year thereafter, the Commission shall provide to each designated contract market the percentage of the combined annual total trading volume of all designated contract markets regulated by the Commission which is constituted by that designated contract market’s annual total trading volume, providing this information for 2015 within 60 calendar days of the effective date of the final version of this rule, and for 2016 and subsequent years by February 28 of the following calendar year.

(3) Delegation of authority. The Commission hereby delegates, until it orders otherwise, to the Director of the Division of Market Oversight or such other employee or employees as the Director may designate from time to time, the authority to provide each designated contract market with its percentage of the total annual trading volume of all designated contract markets regulated by the Commission, as set forth in paragraph (n)(2) of this section. The Director of the Division of Market Oversight may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter that has been delegated pursuant to this section. Nothing in this section prohibits the Commission, at its election, from exercising the authority delegated in this section.

§ 38.1100 — Core Principle 21.

(a) In General. The board of trade shall have adequate financial, operational, and managerial resources to discharge each responsibility of the board of trade.

(b) Determination of adequacy. The financial resources of the board of trade shall be considered to be adequate if the value of the financial resources exceeds the total amount that would enable the contract market to cover the operating costs of the contract market for a 1-year period, as calculated on a rolling basis.

§ 38.1101 — General requirements.

(a) General rule. (1) A designated contract market must maintain financial resources sufficient to enable it to perform its functions in compliance with the core principles set forth in section 5 of the Act and regulations thereunder.

(2) Financial resources shall be considered sufficient if their value is at least equal to a total amount that would enable the designated contract market, or applicant for designation as such, to cover its operating costs for a period of at least one year, calculated on a rolling basis.

(3) An entity that is registered with the Commission as both a designated contract market and a derivatives clearing organization also shall comply with the financial resource requirements of § 39.11 of this chapter, demonstrating that it has sufficient financial resources to operate the single, combined entity as both a designated contract market and a derivatives clearing organization. In lieu of filing separate quarterly reports under paragraph (a)(2) of this section and § 39.11(f) of this chapter, such entity shall file single quarterly reports in accordance with § 39.11.

(b) Types of financial resources. Financial resources available to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section may include:

(1) The designated contract market’s own capital, calculated in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; and

(2) Any other financial resource deemed acceptable by the Commission.

(c) Computation of financial resource requirement. A designated contract market must, on a quarterly basis, based upon its fiscal year, make a reasonable calculation of its projected operating costs over a 12-month period in order to determine the amount needed to meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section. The designated contract market shall have reasonable discretion in determining the methodology used to compute such projected operating costs. The Commission may review the methodology and require changes as appropriate.

(d) Valuation of financial resources. At appropriate intervals, but not less than quarterly, a designated contract market must compute the current market value of each financial resource used to meet its obligations under paragraph (a) of this section. Reductions in value to reflect market and credit risk (“haircuts”) must be applied as appropriate.

(e) Liquidity of financial resources. The financial resources allocated by the designated contract market to meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section must include unencumbered, liquid financial assets (i.e., cash and/or highly liquid securities) equal to at least six months’ operating costs. If any portion of such financial resources is not sufficiently liquid, the designated contract market may take into account a committed line of credit or similar facility for the purpose of meeting this requirement.

(f) Reporting requirements. (1) Each fiscal quarter, or at any time upon Commission request, a designated contract market must:

(i) Report to the Commission:

(A) The amount of financial resources necessary to meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section; and

(B) The value of each financial resource available, computed in accordance with the requirements of paragraph (d) of this section; and

(ii) Provide the Commission with a financial statement, including the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows of the designated contract market or of its parent company.

(2) The calculations required by this paragraph shall be made as of the last business day of the designated contract market’s fiscal quarter.

(3) The designated contract market must provide the Commission with:

(i) Sufficient documentation explaining the methodology used to compute its financial requirements under paragraph (a) of this section;

(ii) Sufficient documentation explaining the basis for its determinations regarding the valuation and liquidity requirements set forth in paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section; and

(iii) Copies of any agreements establishing or amending a credit facility, insurance coverage, or other arrangement evidencing or otherwise supporting the designated contract market’s conclusions.

(4) The reports shall be filed not later than 40 calendar days after the end of the designated contract market’s first three fiscal quarters, and not later than 60 calendar days after the end of the designated contract market’s fourth fiscal quarter, or at such later time as the Commission may permit, in its discretion, upon request by the designated contract market.

(g) Delegation of authority. (1) The Commission hereby delegates, until it orders otherwise, the authority to the Director of the Division of Market Oversight or such other employee or employees as the Director may designate from time to time, to:

(i) Determine whether a particular financial resource under paragraph (b)(2) may be used to satisfy the requirements of paragraph (a)(1) and (2) of this section;

(ii) Review and make changes to the methodology used to compute the requirements of paragraph (c) of this section;

(iii) Request financial reporting from a designated contract market (in addition to quarterly reports) under paragraph (f)(1) of this section; and

(iv) Grant an extension of time for a designated contract market to file its quarterly financial report under paragraph (f)(4) of this section.

(2) The Director may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter that has been delegated in this paragraph. Nothing in this paragraph prohibits the Commission, at its election, from exercising the authority delegated in this paragraph.

§ 38.1150 — Core Principle 22.

The board of trade, if a publicly traded company, shall endeavor to recruit individuals to serve on the board of directors and the other decision-making bodies (as determined by the Commission) of the board of trade from among, and to have the composition of the bodies reflect, a broad and culturally diverse pool of qualified candidates.

§ 38.1200 — Core Principle 23.

The board of trade shall keep any such records relating to swaps defined in section 1a(47)(A)(v) of the Act open to inspection and examination by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

§ 38.1201 — Additional sources for compliance.

Applicants and designated contract markets may refer to the guidance and/or acceptable practices in appendix B of this part to demonstrate to the Commission compliance with the requirements of § 38.1200 of this part.