The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canadian authorities to cooperate in the oversight of regulated entities that operate on a cross-border basis in the United States and in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, or Quebec. CFTC Acting Chairman Mark Wetjen signed the agreement with leaders of the Alberta Securities Commission, the British Columbia Securities Commission, the Ontario Securities Commission and the Autorite des marchds financiers. The MOU expresses willingness to cooperate in the interest of fulfilling each agency’s respective regulatory mandates regarding derivatives markets. The scope of the agreement includes markets and organized trading platforms, central counterparties, trade repositories, and intermediaries, dealers and other market participants.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) staff plans to hold a public roundtable on Wednesday (April 3) to discuss issues concerning end-users and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) in response to comments and requests for clarification from commercial end-users that have been impacted by the law. The roundtable is to consist of three panels, discussing the obligations of end-users under Regulation 1.35 concerning recordkeeping for commodity interest and related cash or forward transactions; the appropriate regulatory treatment of forward contracts with embedded volumetric optionality; and the appropriate regulatory treatment for purposes of the $25 million (special entity) de minimis threshold for swap dealing to government-owned electric utilities. The roundtable is to be held at 9:30 a.m. EDT at the CFTC headquarters conference center in Washington, DC. A listen-only audio feed will be available by calling (888) 469-2184, passcode 775222.