The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has published final rules amending certain of its regulations applicable to the financial reports that each person registered or required to be registered as a commodity pool operator (CPO) must provide for each commodity pool that it operates.  These amendments: (i) permit the use of additional alternative generally accepted accounting principles, standards or practices, including IFRS, in financial reports and on Form CPO-PQR (which has until now been required to be filed using only US GAAP) (see AIMA’s request for this type of relief from May 2013); (ii) provide “stub-period” relief from the Annual Report audit requirement where the pool’s first fiscal year is four months or less and where, excluding insiders, the pool has had 15 or fewer participants who have contributed no more than $3 million (relief outside these parameters will be limited to “exceptional circumstances involving unique situations”); and (iii) make clear that an audited Annual Report must be distributed and submitted at least once during the life of a pool. If you have any questions regarding these final rules, please contact Jennifer Wood.