Registration of operator IDs is required for individual members, employees of individual members, employees or contractors of a clearing member or CME or CBOT Rule 106.J. (equity member firm) or NYMEX or COMEX Rule 106.J. (member firm) firm, and any other party receiving preferential fees in accordance with various programs offered by any of the Exchanges, unless the terms of those programs specifically exempt such registration.

Additionally, regardless of whether a party is eligible for preferential fees, Market Regulation or the Global Command Center (GCC) reserve the right to require the registration of the operator ID of any market participant.

Exchange Fee System (EFS) supports the registration of operator IDs that are not otherwise required to be registered if the clearing member elects to register the individual or team operator IDs. Trading entities must provide accurate and up-to-date registration information about their individual and team operator IDs to their respective clearing members. The operator ID that is registered in EFS must exactly match the operator that is submitted on all messages sent to CME Globex.

For team registrations, EFS allows for the input of the relevant individual registration information for each person on the team, and also requires the designation of each team member’s role. Available roles include: head trader, risk monitor, technical/program manager, trader and trading monitor.

Each team must have a head trader, typically the most senior person or the person primarily responsible for the team’s activities. If there are changes to the composition of the group of persons represented by the team operator ID, it is the responsibility of the trading entity and the clearing member to ensure that those changes are promptly and accurately reflected in EFS.

Clearing members must ensure that all operator IDs which require registration are currently and accurately registered in EFS and must make any necessary updates to operator ID registrations promptly. Failure to transmit operator IDs to CME Globex in accordance with the Market Regulation Advisory Notice may result in disciplinary action and may also result in a reassessment of fees.

Clearing members are responsible for ensuring that all operator IDs, including customer operator IDs, are unique at the clearing member level and that all non-administrative messages, inclusive of orders, sent to CME Globex are properly submitted with the correct operator ID. Operator IDs are not case sensitive and clearing members must ensure that uniqueness is achieved by means other than solely modifying the letter case between different operator IDs. For example, ABC and abc would be viewed as the same operator ID.

Further, all operator IDs must be between two and 18 characters in length. The Market Regulation Department strongly encourages the use of alpha numeric characters only. If the operator ID contains non-alpha numeric characters, the only characters permitted are as follows:

With respect to accounts that are carried by clearing members on a disclosed basis, clearing members must provide the identity of the individual or team assigned to each operator ID associated with the clearing member immediately upon request by Market Regulation.

With respect to omnibus accounts that are carried by a clearing member on an undisclosed basis, clearing members must be able to either obtain and provide the identity, or require the omnibus account to obtain and provide the identity of the individual or team assigned to each operator ID within the undisclosed omnibus account immediately upon request by Market Regulation.

Clearing Members must maintain historical records related to the individual or team assigned to each operator ID for a minimum of five years. Such historical records need not include the identity of the individual or team.

For operator IDs which require registration, it is the responsibility of the clearing member to ensure that each operator ID is properly registered in the Exchange Fee System (EFS). Registered operator IDs must be identified as either individual or team in EFS, and all registrations must be current and accurate at all times.

This is part of a course on operator IDs. For official regulatory guidance on operator IDs, reference the applicable Market Regulation Advisory Notice.