CFTC Staff Issues ElectronX No-Action Relief on Large Trader Reporting

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Market Oversight announced on September 2, 2026 that it has issued a no-action letter to Electron Exchange DCM LLC, a designated contract market, allowing the exchange to submit large trader reporting on behalf of its direct participants as if the exchange’s contracts were exclusively self-cleared contracts, according to a CFTC press release.

Terms of the No-Action Position

The relief, set out in CFTC Staff Letter No. 26-24 and signed by DJ Hennes, acting director of the Division of Market Oversight, responds to a request the division received from Electron Exchange DCM, LLC, which operates as ElectronX. The letter states that the division will not recommend the Commission take enforcement action on two grounds: first, that ElectronX does not provide reporting required by regulation 16.00 in connection with positions of clearing members that are direct participants on the exchange; and second, that ElectronX’s direct participants do not provide reporting required by regulations 17.00 and 17.01 in connection with their positions in ElectronX contracts.

The position is subject to four conditions. ElectronX must provide regulation 16.00 reporting in connection with positions of futures commission merchant clearing members that carry accounts for non-direct participants. It must provide regulation 17.00 and 17.01 reporting on behalf of its direct participants. It must timely collect from its direct participants all information necessary to perform that reporting. And its direct participants remain responsible for all reporting required by Part 18 of the Commission’s regulations, which covers special calls for Form 40 directed to traders.

The letter states that it will expire upon the compliance date of any final action taken by the Commission with respect to the matter. It also states that the position represents the views of the division only, is not binding on the Commission or other Commission staff, and that any different, changed, or omitted material facts or circumstances may render the position void.

How the Reporting Rules Apply

Part 17 of the Commission’s regulations sets out large trader position reporting and ownership and control reporting requirements for futures commission merchants, clearing members, and foreign brokers. Regulation 16.00 separately requires designated contract markets to submit daily reports showing each clearing member’s open long and short positions, purchases and sales, exchanges of futures, and futures delivery notices.

The Commission’s rules carve out a distinct regime for “exclusively self-cleared contracts,” defined in regulation 15.00(h) as a cleared contract for which no persons other than a reporting market and its clearing organization are permitted to accept money, securities, or property to margin, guarantee, or secure any trade. For such contracts, the obligation to submit large trader position reporting and ownership and control reporting shifts from the clearing member to the designated contract market, and the ordinary clearing member reporting requirements under regulation 16.00 do not apply. According to the letter, the Commission designed this alternative scheme for non-intermediated markets in which retail customers directly access the exchange to trade fully collateralized contracts, because such traders may generally lack the resources or regulatory experience to perform large trader reporting, while the exchange possesses the information necessary to report.

ElectronX’s Shift to an Intermediated Model

ElectronX lists for trade cash-settled bounded futures with underlying commodities relating to electricity and/or power markets, and the contracts are fully collateralized. The exchange was designated as a contract market on August 29, 2025, under an order of designation issued to the Delaware limited liability company headquartered in Chicago. That order included a provision barring the exchange from permitting any futures commission merchant to intermediate transactions or carry customer accounts unless the order was amended.

On August 10, 2026, the Commission issued an amended order of designation that vacated that provision, permitting intermediation. ElectronX stated in its request, dated August 12, 2026, that it intends to permit both intermediated participants and direct participants to trade its contracts.

According to the letter, ElectronX has to date provided large trader position reporting and ownership and control reporting on behalf of its participants because it has listed exclusively self-cleared contracts. Once the exchange introduces futures commission merchant intermediation, however, the exclusively self-cleared reporting scheme will no longer apply. Absent relief, ElectronX would be required to submit regulation 16.00 clearing member reports, and its direct participants, including any retail participants, would be required to submit large trader position reports and ownership and control reports on their own behalf.

ElectronX argued in its request that the relief is consistent with the Commission’s rationale for the exclusively self-cleared contracts rules, which the exchange said allocates reporting responsibilities from traders, who are not well-positioned to provide routine regulatory reporting, to designated contract markets, which are. The exchange also argued that the position does not alter the information the Commission receives but reallocates reporting responsibilities, and it represented that it possesses the ownership and control information for its direct participants necessary to provide the reporting, complies with the form and manner requirements in regulation 17.02, and can provide the same data that direct participants would be required to provide under Part 17. The letter notes that exempting ElectronX from regulation 16.00 clearing member reports for direct participants would result in some gap in reporting, because the Commission would receive large trader position reports only for “special accounts” rather than reports reflecting positions of all clearing members, though the letter states this gap is contemplated by the exclusively self-cleared contracts regime.

The division stated in the letter that permitting ElectronX’s direct participants to continue relying on the exchange to perform regulatory reporting on their behalf is consistent with the exclusively self-cleared contract rules’ purpose of allocating reporting responsibilities by capabilities.

The relief follows earlier staff no-action positions involving the exchange. In CFTC Letter No. 25-35, the Division of Market Oversight and the Division of Clearing and Risk granted ElectronX DCM and its registered derivatives clearing organization, Electron Exchange DCO, LLC, a no-action position covering swap data reporting and recordkeeping requirements for fully collateralized binary options on electricity and power markets traded on the exchange and cleared by its clearing organization.