On July 29, the CFTC released a final rule to amend Part 48 of its regulations to permit a CFTC-registered, foreign board of trade (FBOT) to provide direct access to its electronic trading and order matching system to an identified member or participant in the U.S. and registered with the commission as an introducing broker for customer orders. The final rule will:

• Permit FBOTs to provide direct access to introducing brokers to enter orders on behalf of U.S. customers
• Impose certain registration conditions for FBOTs
• Allow for FBOTs to request a revocation of registration voluntarily
• Remove the alternate registration procedure for FBOTs under preexisting no-action letters

The rule will go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.