CFTC’s Spring Cleaning: Let's Make a Deal (Quickly)

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has a lot on its plate—too many enforcement cases, not enough time, and a limited appetite for dragging out every compliance misstep. So, yesterday, at the International Futures Industry Conference, Acting CFTC Chair Caroline Pham announced a plan: a two-week “enforcement sprint” to clear out non-fraud matters and refocus enforcement resources on fraud cases.

The idea is simple:

1. If your firm is being investigated for something that isn’t market abuse or customer harm, you have two weeks (from yesterday’s announcement) to bring Enforcement staff a remediation update and a “reasonable” settlement offer. (“Reasonable” is, of course, in the eye of the CFTC.)
2. The CFTC will try to wrap up these cases in 30 days.

That’s it.