17 C.F.R. § 190.07 – Transfers.

(a) Transfer rules. No clearing organization or self-regulatory organization may adopt, maintain in effect, or enforce rules that:
1. (1) Are inconsistent with the provisions of this part;
2. (2) Interfere with the acceptance by its members of transfers of commodity contracts, and the property margining or securing such contracts, from futures commission merchants that are required to transfer accounts pursuant to § 1.17(a)(4) of this chapter; or
3. (3) Interfere with the acceptance by its members of transfers of commodity contracts, and the property margining or securing such contracts, from a futures commission merchant that is a debtor as defined in § 190.01, if such transfers have been approved by the Commission, provided, however, that this paragraph (a)(3) shall not—
  1. (i) Limit the exercise of any contractual right of a clearing organization or other registered entity to liquidate or transfer open commodity contracts; or
  2. (ii) Be interpreted to limit a clearing organization's ability adequately to manage risk.
(b) Requirements for transferees.
1. (1) It is the duty of each transferee to assure that it will not accept a transfer that would cause the transferee to be in violation of the minimum financial requirements set forth in this chapter.
2. (2) Any transferee that accepts a transfer of open commodity contracts from the estate of the debtor—
  1. (i) Accepts the transfer subject to any loss that may arise in the event the transferee cannot recover from the customer any deficit balance that may arise related to the transferred open commodity contracts.
  2. (ii) If the commodity contracts were held for the account of a customer:
    1. (A) Must keep such commodity contracts open at least one business day after their receipt, unless the customer for whom the transfer is made fails to respond within a reasonable time to a margin call for the difference between the margin transferred with such commodity contracts and the margin which such transferee would require with respect to a similar set of commodity contracts held for the account of a customer in the ordinary course of business; and
    2. (B) May not collect commissions with respect to the transfer of such commodity contracts.
3. (3) A transferee may accept open commodity contracts and property, and open accounts on its records, for customers whose commodity contracts and property are transferred pursuant to this part prior to completing customer diligence, provided that account opening diligence as required by law (including the risk disclosures referred to in § 1.65(a)(3) of this chapter) is performed, and records and information required by law are obtained, as soon as practicable, but in any event within six months of the transfer, unless this time is extended for a particular account, transferee, or debtor by the Commission.
4. (4)
  1. (i) Any account agreements governing a transferred account (including an account that has been partially transferred) shall be deemed assigned to the transferee by operation of law and shall govern the transferee and customer's relationship until such time as the transferee and customer enter into a new agreement; provided, however, that any breach of such agreement by the debtor existing at or before the time of the transfer (including, but not limited to, any failure to segregate sufficient customer property) shall not constitute a default or breach of the agreement on the part of the transferee, or constitute a defense to the enforcement of the agreement by the transferee.
  2. (ii) Paragraph (b)(4)(i) of this section shall not apply where the customer has a pre-existing account agreement with the transferee futures commission merchant. In such a case, the transferred account will be governed by that pre-existing account agreement.
5. (5) If open commodity contracts or any specifically identifiable property has been, or is to be, transferred in accordance with section 764(b) of the Bankruptcy Code and this section, customer instructions previously received by the trustee with respect to open commodity contracts or with respect to specifically identifiable property, shall be transmitted to the transferee of property, which shall comply therewith to the extent practicable.
(c) Eligibility for transfer under section 764(b) of the Bankruptcy Code—accounts eligible for transfer. All commodity contract accounts (including accounts with no open commodity contract positions) are eligible for transfer after the order for relief pursuant to section 764(b) of the Bankruptcy Code, except:
1. (1) The debtor's own account or the accounts of general partners of the debtor if the debtor is a partnership; and
2. (2) Accounts that are in deficit.
(d) Special rules for transfers under section 764(b) of the Bankruptcy Code—(1) Effecting transfer. The trustee for a commodity broker shall use its best efforts to effect a transfer to one or more other commodity brokers of all eligible commodity contract accounts, open commodity contracts and property held by the debtor for or on behalf of its customers, based on customer claims or record, no later than the seventh calendar day after the order for relief.
(2) Partial transfers; multiple transferees—(i) Of the customer estate. If all eligible commodity contract accounts held by a debtor cannot be transferred under this section, a partial transfer may nonetheless be made. The Commission will not disapprove such a transfer for the sole reason that it was a partial transfer. Commodity contract accounts may be transferred to one or more transferees, and, subject to paragraph (d)(4) of this section, may be transferred to different transferees by account class.
(ii) Of a customer's commodity contract account. If all of a customer's open commodity contracts and property cannot be transferred under this section, a partial transfer of contracts and property may be made so long as such transfer would not result in an increase in the amount of any customer's net equity claim. One, but not the only, means to effectuate a partial transfer is by liquidating a portion of the open commodity contracts held by a customer such that sufficient value is realized, or margin requirements are reduced to an extent sufficient, to permit the transfer of some or all of the remaining open commodity contracts and property. If any open commodity contract to be transferred in a partial transfer is part of a spread or straddle, to the extent practicable under the circumstances, each side of such spread or straddle must be transferred or none of the open commodity contracts comprising the spread or straddle may be transferred.
(3) Letters of credit. A letter of credit received, acquired, or held to margin, guarantee, secure, purchase, or sell a commodity contract may be transferred with an eligible commodity contract account if it is held by a derivatives clearing organization on a pass-through or other basis or is transferable by its terms, so long as the transfer will not result in a recovery which exceeds the amount to which the customer would be entitled under §§ 190.08 and 190.09. If the letter of credit cannot be transferred as provided for in the foregoing sentence, and the customer does not deliver substitute customer property to the trustee in accordance with § 190.04(d)(3), the trustee may draw upon a portion or all of the letter of credit, the proceeds of which shall be treated as customer property in the applicable account class.
(4) Physical delivery property. The trustee shall use reasonable efforts to prevent physical delivery property held for the purpose of making delivery on a commodity contract from being transferred separate and apart from the related commodity contract, or to a different transferee.
(5) No prejudice to other customers. No transfer shall be made under this part by the trustee if, after taking into account all customer property available for distribution to customers in the applicable account class at the time of the transfer, such transfer would result in insufficient remaining customer property to make an equivalent percentage distribution (including all previous transfers and distributions) to all customers in the applicable account class, based on—
1. (i) Customer claims of record; and
2. (ii) Estimates of other customer claims made in the trustee's reasonable discretion based on available information, in each case as of the calendar day immediately preceding transfer.
3. (e) Prohibition on avoidance of transfers under section 764(b) of the Bankruptcy Code—(1) Pre-relief transfers. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, the following transfers are approved and may not be avoided under sections 544, 546, 547, 548, 549, or 724(a) of the Bankruptcy Code:
  1. (i) The transfer of commodity contract accounts or customer property prior to the entry of the order for relief in compliance with § 1.17(a)(4) of this chapter unless such transfer is disapproved by the Commission;
  2. (ii) The transfer, withdrawal, or settlement, prior to the order for relief at the request of a public customer, including a transfer, withdrawal, or settlement at the request of a public customer that is a commodity broker, of commodity contract accounts or customer property held from or for the account of such customer by or on behalf of the debtor unless:
    1. (A) The customer acted in collusion with the debtor or its principals to obtain a greater share of customer property or the bankruptcy estate than that to which it would be entitled under this part; or
    2. (B) The transfer is disapproved by the Commission;
  3. (iii) The transfer prior to the order for relief by a clearing organization, or by a receiver that has been appointed for the futures commission merchant (FCM) that is now a debtor, of one or more accounts held for or on behalf of customers of the debtor, or of commodity contracts and other customer property held for or on behalf of customers of the debtor, provided that the transfer is not disapproved by the Commission.
  4. (2) Post-relief transfers. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, the following transfers are approved and may not be avoided under sections 544, 546, 547, 548, 549, or 724(a) of the Bankruptcy Code:
    1. (i) The transfer of a commodity contract account or customer property eligible to be transferred under paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section made by the trustee or by any clearing organization on or before the seventh calendar day after the entry of the order for relief, as to which the Commission has not disapproved the transfer; or
    2. (ii) The transfer of a commodity contract account or customer property at the direction of the Commission on or before the seventh calendar day after the order for relief, upon such terms and conditions as the Commission may deem appropriate and in the public interest.
4. (f) Commission action. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section (other than paragraphs (d)(2)(ii) and (d)(5) of this section), in appropriate cases and to protect the public interest, the Commission may:
  1. (1) Prohibit the transfer of a particular set or sets of commodity contract accounts and customer property; or
  2. (2) Permit transfers of a particular set or sets of commodity contract accounts and customer property that do not comply with the requirements of this section.