ICI Appeals Challenge to CFTC Commodities Rule

The Investment Company Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today filed a notice of appeal of a recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upholding the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s rule requiring mutual funds with commodities investments to register with the agency.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington earlier this month rejected arguments by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the ICI that the rule is unnecessary, and that the commission didn’t properly assess the costs and benefits when it approved the regulation in February.

The case will be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“We brought this challenge because the CFTC failed to justify the regulatory excess and added costs of its amendments to Rule 4.5, which would impose that agency’s regulatory regime atop the comprehensive regulation already applied to registered funds by the Securities and Exchange Commission,” stated ICI president and CEO Paul Schott Stevens.

“We believe the District Court decision is deeply flawed and will clearly harm the many shareholders of registered funds that will bear the costs of overlapping regulation by two agencies.”