Table Of Contents

Business Processes

Commission staff perform key business processes—collections of specific activities and strategies—that provide the means for producing the desired outcomes and achieving the Commission’s strategic goals.

While each outcome of the Commission’s four strategic goals is supported by a specific set of business processes, there are instances in which the same business processes are executed in order to reach more than one outcome. For example, the business process, “Investigate, file, and prosecute cases,” is executed for the Goal Two outcome, “Commodity professionals meet high standards,” as well as for the Goal Three outcomes, “Clearing organizations and firms holding customer funds have sound financial practices,” and “Markets free of trade practice abuses.” Below are detailed explanations of each business process.

Conduct Economic Research

• Maintain a current understanding of market functions and developments through studies and research.
• Collect data from futures and option large traders, intermediaries, and SROs and for all actively traded contracts to support dissemination of information to the public, and futures market studies and research by Commission staff and others.

Conduct Financial Surveillance

• Monitor and address the financial effects of unusual or prolonged market moves on customers, firms, and clearing organizations.
• Identify possible violations of the Act and/or regulations involving record-keeping, financial, capitalization, and segregation requirements for investigation and possible prosecution.
• Collect data from futures and option large traders, intermediaries, and SROs and for all actively traded contracts to support financial surveillance by Commission staff and others.
• Conduct direct audits of clearing organizations and intermediaries to ensure compliance with capitalization, segregation, disclosure, record-keeping, and reporting rules.

Conduct Market Surveillance

• Monitor the markets to detect and respond quickly to potentially disruptive situations, such as market congestion and/or potential price manipulation.
• Collect data from futures and option large traders, intermediaries, and SROs and for all actively traded contracts to support market surveillance, enforcement of speculative position limits, and dissemination of information to the public by Commission staff and others.

Conduct Trade Practice Surveillance

• Monitor the markets to detect possible abusive trading practices.
• Collect data from futures and option large traders, intermediaries, and SROs and for all actively traded contracts to support trade practice surveillance by Commission staff and others.

Cooperative Enforcement

• Cooperate with SROs, other Federal agencies, state governmental agencies, law enforcement entities, and foreign authorities to gain information for law enforcement purposes, coordinate prosecutions, share technical expertise, and provide enforcement assistance as necessary and appropriate.

Coordinate with Domestic Regulators

• Participate in the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG) to ensure coordination of information and efforts among U.S. financial regulators.

Coordinate with Foreign and International Regulators

• Coordinate and cooperate with foreign financial services regulators to develop appropriate global standards and arrangements in the commodities industry as markets emerge and evolve, and to share vital information concerning markets, intermediaries, and regulatory structure.
• Participate in IOSCO and represent the Commission at international meetings concerning financial services regulation.

Investigate Violations

• Identify and investigate possible instances of fraud, manipulation, and abusive trading practices, and other violations of the Act and or regulations, including those relating to registration, financial, capitalization, segregation, and supervision requirements.

File and Prosecute Cases

• Bring administrative and injunctive cases involving fraud, manipulation, abusive trading practices, and other violations of the Act and/or regulations, including those relating to financial, registration, capitalization, segregation, and supervision requirements.
• Where appropriate, use “quick-strike” efforts to protect assets and to stop egregious conduct.
• Impose sanctions and collect civil monetary penalties against violators.

Draft, Review, and Comment on Legislation

• Draft, review, and comment on pending legislation.

Manage Reparations Program

• Manage a reparations program for commodity futures and option market users to make claims relating to violations of the Act.

Regulate Business, Financial, and Sales Practices

• Promulgate regulations to ensure sound business, financial, and sales practices by persons participating in the commodity futures and option industry.

Represent Commission in Litigation or Other Disputes

• Represent the Commission in disputes or litigation in which the Commission has an interest.

Resolve Administrative Cases

• Hear and resolve administrative enforcement cases.

Resolve Appeals

• Resolve appeals in administrative enforcement matters, SRO adjudicatory actions, and reparation cases.
• Inform the public and the industry of the reasons for the Commission’s decisions concerning allegations of wrongdoing through published opinions describing the alleged violations and the Commission’s legal and policy analysis.

Review Exchange Applications, Contracts, and Rules

• Conduct timely reviews of applications for new contract markets, derivatives transaction execution facilities (DTEFs), and clearing organizations to determine if they comply with the Commission’s approval criteria, core principles, and regulations.
• Conduct timely reviews of requests for approval of products and rules.
• Conduct reviews of submissions filed under certification procedures to determine if they comply with statutory and regulatory requirements and do not pose a likelihood of disruption of the cash, futures, or option markets.

Review SRO Enforcement

• Conduct rule enforcement reviews of SROs, including financial practices, sales practices, trade practices, market surveillance, arbitration programs, and audit trail.

Share Information Externally

• Manage requests for information from Congress and responses to those requests.
• Provide materials and information on the functions and utility of the markets to the public through public Commission meetings, public roundtables and panels, advisory committee meetings, symposia, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) publications, routine reports on large trader activity, consumer advisories and alerts, news releases, and the Commission’s Web site.
• Manage requests for information from the public and responses to those requests (includes Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Officer of the Day programs).

Take Appropriate Remedial or Punitive Action

• Utilize a broad range of tools and strategies for procuring compliance with the Act and regulations.
• Provide exemptive, interpretive, or other relief as appropriate to foster the development of innovative transactions, trading systems, and similar arrangements.

Plan for and Manage the Human, Financial, Informational, and Technological Needs and Resources of the Commission

• Allocate resources consistent with the Strategic Plan.
• Develop and employ strategies that will focus on achieving results.
• Evaluate and adjust management and strategic plans to ensure that potential problems or weaknesses are managed before they develop into crises.

Provide Executive Leadership

• Assess continually the external and internal issues and trends that may affect successful fulfillment of the Commission’s mission, and develop and employ strategies to meet them successfully.

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