📅 5 November 2026 • U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
What the CFTC issued
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has issued an interpretation of Commission Regulation 38.151(b), the Impartial Access Requirements, which require designated contract markets (DCMs) to provide competitive, open, fair, and impartial access to their members and persons with trading privileges. Under the interpretation, domestic geographic access restrictions are inconsistent with the purposes of the Commodity Exchange Act and with its impartial access requirements. Chairman Michael S. Selig said derivatives markets “must operate on a uniform basis at a national scale” and that geographic access restrictions are inconsistent with those purposes.
A 30-day compliance window, not a new rule
The interpretation sets a hard deadline. DCMs must cease domestic geographic restrictions that violate the Impartial Access Requirements within 30 days, or submit to the Division of Market Oversight an explanation of why compliance is not feasible. Within the same 30 days, DCMs must ensure that intermediaries accessing their markets are not impeding compliance, or likewise explain infeasibility to the Division. The Commission adds that it “will consider the facts and circumstances of any particular case in connection with potential Commission action”, so this is an interpretation with a compliance window, not an enforcement action and not a fine.
The procedural choice is the analytical point. Instead of drafting a new rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking, the Commission took an existing, broadly worded access principle and converted it into a fixed countdown by interpreting it, which puts the burden of adjusting access policies on exchanges within weeks rather than after a full rulemaking cycle.
What compliance teams should do now
For compliance teams at exchanges, brokers and intermediaries, the immediate step is an audit of geographic-access policies against Regulation 38.151(b). The review should cover direct access criteria and any intermediary practices that could restrict access by location, since exchanges are responsible for confirming that intermediaries do not impede impartial access. If a restriction cannot be removed within 30 days, the only alternative the interpretation offers is an affirmative infeasibility explanation filed with the Division of Market Oversight, meaning the reasoning must be documented and defended rather than implied by market practice.
IMPACT
Who is affected: designated contract markets (DCMs) and intermediaries with access to US derivatives markets, including brokers and platforms that route client orders across states.
What changes: a 30-day window in which domestic geographic restrictions that violate Regulation 38.151(b) must be removed and intermediary practices verified as not impeding access.
What to do now: audit geographic-access policies against Regulation 38.151(b), review how intermediaries handle access, and prepare an infeasibility explanation for the Division of Market Oversight if removal within the deadline is not feasible.
Sources
cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9323-26
cryptobriefing.com/cftc-dcm-impartial-access-geographic-restrictions
crowdfundinsider.com/2026/11/321656-cftc-issues-impartial-access-requirements-interpretation
Sources:
- https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9323-26
- https://cryptobriefing.com/cftc-dcm-impartial-access-geographic-restrictions/
- https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2026/11/321656-cftc-issues-impartial-access-requirements-interpretation
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