On November 3, 2014, the CFTC proposed amendments to rules on recordkeeping requirements for commodity-interest and related cash or forward transactions. The proposed amendments would exempt asset managers and commodity trading advisers (CTAs) from having to record their phone conversations and would change a requirement for futures commission merchants (FCMs) to store communications on their swaps trades in an "identifiable and searchable" manner.

Currently, Regulation 1.35 requires each FCM, retail foreign exchange dealer (RFED), introducing broker (IB) and member of a designated contract market (DCM) or swap execution facility (SEF) to keep full, complete and systematic records of all transactions relating to its business of dealing in commodity interests and related cash or forward transactions.

The CFTC's proposed amendments would amend Regulation 1.35(a) to:

The proposed amendments would also exempt members of DCMs or SEFs that are not registered or required to register with the CFTC in any capacity from the Regulation 1.35(a) requirements to:

Finally, the proposed amendments would exempt CTAs from the requirement to record and maintain oral communications that lead to the execution of a commodity-interest transaction. The amendments would also exclude members of DCMs or SEFs that are not registered or required to register with the CFTC in any capacity from the requirements to retain text messages relating to commodity-interest and related cash or forward transactions and to maintain records of these transactions in a particular form or manner.

The CFTC proposed these amendments based on an April 2014 CFTC roundtable in which several firms noted the difficulty of keeping information from text messages in an identifiable and searchable format. The SIFMA asset management group, which represents asset managers in the financial industry, said the cost of implementing an oral recording program was in the six-figure range, which was too high for small firms that traded swaps a few times a year.

Separately, the CFTC voted unanimously to propose a rule that would require brokers to calculate on a daily basis the total amount that customers fall below their required margin for futures transactions. The brokers must deposit their own capital or residual interest in customer segregated accounts by 6:00 p.m. on the following business day to make up any shortfall.