17 CFR § 190.06 - Making and taking delivery under commodity contracts.

§ 190.06 Making and taking delivery under commodity contracts.

(a) Deliveries—(1) General. The provisions of this paragraph (a) apply to commodity contracts that settle upon expiration or exercise by making or taking delivery of physical delivery property, if such commodity contracts are in a delivery position on the filing date, or the trustee is unable to liquidate such commodity contracts in accordance with § 190.04(c) to prevent them from moving into a delivery position, i.e., before the debtor or its customer incurs bilateral contractual obligations to make or take delivery under such commodity contracts.

(2) Delivery made or taken on behalf of a customer outside of the administration of the debtor's estate.

(i) The trustee shall use reasonable efforts to allow a customer to deliver physical delivery property that is held directly by the customer and not by the debtor (and thus not recorded in any commodity contract account of the customer) in settlement of a commodity contract, and to allow payment in exchange for such delivery, to occur outside the administration of the debtor's estate, when the rules of the exchange or other market listing the commodity contract, or the clearing organization or the foreign clearing organization clearing the commodity contract, as applicable, prescribe a process for delivery that allows the delivery to be fulfilled:

(A) In the normal course directly by the customer;

(B) By substitution of the customer for the commodity broker; or

(C) Through agreement of the buyer and seller to alternative delivery procedures.

(ii) Where a customer delivers physical delivery property in settlement of a commodity contract outside of the administration of the debtors' estate in accordance with paragraph (a)(2)(i) of this section, any property of such customer held at the debtor in connection with such contract must nonetheless be included in the net equity claim of that customer, and, as such, can only be distributed pro rata at the time of, and as part of, any distributions to customers made by the trustee.

(3) Delivery as part of administration of the debtor's estate. When the trustee determines that it is not practicable to effect delivery as provided in paragraph (a)(2) of this section:

(i) To facilitate the making or taking of delivery directly by a customer, the trustee may, as it determines reasonable under the circumstances of the case and consistent with the pro rata distribution of customer property by account class:

(A) When a customer is obligated to make delivery, return any physical delivery property to the customer that is held by the debtor for or on behalf of the customer under the terms set forth in § 190.09(d)(1)(ii), to allow the customer to deliver such property to fulfill its delivery obligation under the commodity contract; or

(B) When a customer is obligated to take delivery:

(1) Return any cash delivery property to the customer that is reflected in the customer's delivery account, provided that cash delivery property returned under this paragraph (a)(3)(i)(B)(1) shall not exceed the lesser of:

(i) The amount the customer is required to pay for delivery of the commodity; or

(ii) The customer's net funded balance for all of the customer's commodity contract accounts;

(2) Return cash, securities, or other property held in the customer's non-delivery commodity contract accounts, provided that property returned under this section shall not exceed the lesser of:

(i) The amount the customer is required to pay for delivery of the commodity; or

(ii) The net funded balance for all of the customer's commodity contract accounts reduced by any amount returned to the customer pursuant to paragraph (a)(3)(i)(B)(1) of this section, and provided further, however, that the trustee may distribute such property only to the extent that the customer's funded balance for each such account exceeds the minimum margin obligations for such account (as described in § 190.04(b)(2)); and

(C) Impose such conditions on the customer as it considers appropriate to assure that property returned to the customer is used to fulfill the customer's delivery obligations.

(ii) If the trustee does not return physical delivery property, cash delivery property, or other property in the form of cash or cash equivalents to the customer as provided in paragraph (a)(3)(i) of this section, subject to paragraph (a)(4) of this section:

(A) To the extent practical, the trustee shall make or take delivery of physical delivery property in the same manner as if no bankruptcy had occurred, and when making delivery, the party to which delivery is made must pay the full price required for taking such delivery; or

(B) When taking delivery of physical delivery property:

(1) The trustee shall pay for the delivery first using the customer's cash delivery property or other property, limited to the amounts set forth in paragraph (a)(3)(i)(B) of this section, along with any cash transferred by the customer to the trustee on or after the filing date for the purpose of paying for delivery.

(2) If the value of the cash or cash equivalents that may be used to pay for deliveries as described in paragraph (a)(3)(i)(B) of this section is less than the amount required to be paid for taking delivery, the trustee shall issue a payment call to the customer. The full amount of any payment made by the customer in response to a payment call must be credited to the funded balance of the particular account for which such payment is made.

(3) If the customer fails to meet a call for payment under paragraph (a)(3)(ii)(B)(2) of this section before payment is made for delivery, the trustee must convert any physical delivery property received on behalf of the customer to cash as promptly as possible.

(4) Deliveries in a securities account. If an open commodity contract held in a futures account, foreign futures account, or cleared swaps account requires delivery of a security upon expiration or exercise of such commodity contract, and delivery is not completed pursuant to paragraph (a)(2) or (a)(3)(i) of this section, the trustee may make or take delivery in a securities account in a manner consistent with paragraph (a)(3)(ii) of this section, provided, however, that the trustee may transfer property from the customer's commodity contract accounts to the securities account to fulfill the delivery obligation only to the extent that the customer's funded balance for such commodity contract account exceeds the customer's minimum margin obligations for such accounts (as described in § 190.04(b)(2)) and provided further that the customer is not under-margined or does not have a deficit balance in any other commodity contract accounts.

(5) Delivery made or taken on behalf of proprietary account. If delivery of physical delivery property is to be made or taken on behalf of the debtor's own account or the account of any non-public customer of the debtor, the trustee shall make or take delivery, as the case may be, on behalf of the debtor's estate, provided that if the trustee takes delivery of physical delivery property it must convert such property to cash as promptly as possible.

(b) Special account class provisions for delivery accounts.

(1) Within the delivery account class, the trustee shall treat—

(i) Physical delivery property held in delivery accounts as of the filing date, and the proceeds of any such physical delivery property subsequently received, as part of the physical delivery account class; and

(ii) Cash delivery property in delivery accounts as of the filing date, along with any physical delivery property for which delivery is subsequently taken on behalf of a customer in accordance with paragraph (a)(3) of this section, as part of a separate cash delivery account class.

(2)

(i) If the debtor holds any cash or cash equivalents in an account maintained at a bank, clearing organization, foreign clearing organization, or other person, under a name or in a manner that clearly indicates that the account holds property for the purpose of making payment for taking delivery, or receiving payment for making delivery, of a commodity under commodity contracts, such property shall (subject to § 190.09) be considered customer property—

(A) In the cash delivery account class if held for making payment for taking delivery; and

(B) In the physical delivery account class, if held as a result of receiving such payment for a making delivery after the filing date.

(ii) Any other property (excluding property segregated for the benefit of customer in the futures, foreign futures or cleared swaps account class) that is traceable as having been held or received for the purpose of making delivery, or as having been held or received as a result of taking delivery, of a commodity under commodity contracts, shall (subject to § 190.09) be considered customer property—

(A) In the cash delivery account class if received after the filing date in exchange for taking delivery; and

(B) Otherwise shall be considered customer property in the physical delivery account class.