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CFTC
US regulators now exempt family offices from having to win regulatory relief regarding certain investment pools, as part of a drive to simplify rules on financial services.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently approved adjustments to how commodity pool operators (CPOs) and commodity trading advisors (CTOs) were regulated. Rule changes include CPOs and CTOs having registration carve-outs for family offices similar to those enjoyed by investment advisors regarding the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The CFTC voted 4-1 for the changes. 

According to a report by Mondaq, CFTC chair and chief executive Heath P Tarbert said that "family offices" pose little risk to customers, and so there is not a meaningful benefit in requiring the operators of family offices to file an exemption from registration claims with the CFTC.

Meanwhile, CFTC commissioner Dan M Berkovitz dissented from the grant of a "blanket exemption" for operators of family offices. Berkovitz said that investor protection was not the only reason to require the operator of a family office to file an exemptive notice with the CFTC; rather, he argued that such notice provided valuable market information to the regulators, given the large size of certain family offices.