17 CFR § 190.02 - General.

prev | next
§ 190.02 General.

(a) Request for exemption.

(1) The trustee (or, in the case of an involuntary petition pursuant to section 303 of the Bankruptcy Code, any other person charged with the management of a commodity broker) may, for good cause shown, request from the Commission an exemption from the requirements of any procedural provision in this part, including an extension of any time limit prescribed by this part or an exemption subject to conditions, provided that the Commission shall not grant an extension for any time period established by the Bankruptcy Code.

(2) A request pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) of this section—

(i) May be made ex parte and by any means of communication, written or oral, provided that the trustee must confirm an oral request in writing within one business day and such confirmation must contain all the information required by paragraph (b)(3) of this section. The request or confirmation of an oral request must be given to the Commission as provided in paragraph (a) of this section.

(ii) Must state the particular provision of this part with respect to which the exemption or extension is sought, the reason for the requested exemption or extension, the amount of time sought if the request is for an extension, and the reason why such exemption or extension would not be contrary to the purposes of the Bankruptcy Code and this part.

(3) The Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk, or members of the Commission staff designated by the Director, shall grant, deny, or otherwise respond to a request, on the basis of the information provided in any such request and after consultation with the Director of the Market Participants Division or members of the Commission staff designated by the Director, unless exigent circumstances require immediate action precluding such prior consultation, and shall communicate that determination by the most appropriate means to the person making the request.

(b) Delegation of authority to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk.

(1) Until such time as the Commission orders otherwise, the Commission hereby delegates to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk, and to such members of the Commission's staff acting under the Director's direction as they may designate, after consultation with the Director of the Market Participants Division, or such members of the Commission's staff under the Director's direction as they may designate, unless exigent circumstances require immediate action, all the functions of the Commission set forth in this part, except the authority to disapprove a pre-relief transfer of a public customer commodity contract account or customer property pursuant to § 190.07(e)(1).

(2) The Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk may submit to the Commission for its consideration any matter which has been delegated to the Director pursuant to paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(3) Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Commission, at its election, from exercising its authority delegated to the Director of the Division of Clearing and Risk under paragraph (b)(1) of this section.

(c) Forward contracts. For purposes of this part, an entity for or with whom the debtor deals who holds a claim against the debtor solely on account of a forward contract, that is not cleared by a clearing organization, will not be deemed to be a customer.

(d) Other. The Bankruptcy Code will not be construed by the Commission to prohibit a commodity broker from doing business as any combination of the following: Futures commission merchant, commodity options dealer, foreign futures commission merchant, or leverage transaction merchant, nor will the Commission construe the Bankruptcy Code to permit any operation, trade, or business, or any combination of the foregoing, otherwise prohibited by the Act or by any of the Commission's regulations in this chapter, or by any order of the Commission.

(e) Rule of construction. Contracts in security futures products held in a securities account shall not be considered to be “from or for the commodity futures account” or “from or for the commodity options account” of such customers, as such terms are used in section 761(9) of the Bankruptcy Code.

(f) Receivers. In the event that a receiver for a futures commission merchant is appointed due to the violation or imminent violation of the customer property protection requirements of section 4d of the Act, or of the regulations in part 1, 22, or 30 of this chapter that implement section 4d or 4(b)(2) of the Act, or of the futures commission merchant's minimum capital requirements in § 1.17 of this chapter, such receiver may, in an appropriate case, file a petition for bankruptcy of such futures commission merchant pursuant to section 301 of the Bankruptcy Code.

(g) Definition of “allowed.” The term “allowed” in this part shall have the meaning ascribed to it in the Bankruptcy Code.