CFTC Staff Won't Pursue Passive-Software Providers Over Broker Registration

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Market Participants Division (MPD) said on September 17, 2026 that it will not recommend enforcement action against providers of "passive software" for failing to register as introducing brokers, according to the agency's press release (Release 9300-26).

The relief is narrow and conditional. Per the CFTC, the no-action position covers a provider's "provision and marketing of software to facilitate trading" between the provider's users and entities that are already registered — futures commission merchants, introducing brokers, and designated contract markets. It applies "subject to certain specified conditions," and it shields both the provider and "their relevant personnel" from a staff enforcement recommendation over the failure to register as an introducing broker or as an associated person of one.

The CFTC frames this as a broadening of existing policy rather than a new one. The release says the position is "similar to that provided in Staff Letter 26-09" and is "now broadly available to such providers" — meaning what had been case-specific relief is being extended to the category generally.

A few things the release does not do, and it's worth being precise about them. It does not define "passive software," and it does not spell out the "specified conditions" in the text released — those sit in the underlying staff letter, which the announcement references but does not reproduce. It is a staff no-action position, not a Commission rule or order: it reflects the view of one CFTC division, binds no one else, and can be withdrawn or modified. The CFTC's standard framing is that such letters protect only the recipient meeting the stated conditions and do not represent a legal conclusion by the Commission.

Key facts

• MPD issued a no-action position for providers of passive software; announced September 17, 2026 (CFTC Release 9300-26).
• Relief covers failure to register as an introducing broker or associated person of one (CFTC).
• Scope: providing and marketing software that facilitates user trading with registered FCMs, IBs, and DCMs (CFTC).
• Described as similar to Staff Letter 26-09 and "now broadly available" (CFTC).
• Conditional relief; the specified conditions are not detailed in the release (CFTC).

The real-world read

Read what this is, not what it might be spun into. It's staff-level, conditional, and register-specific — not a green light for trading software generally, and not a Commission blessing. The word doing the heavy lifting is "passive": the whole thing hinges on a definition the release doesn't provide, which lives in the referenced staff letter. Note too that the carve-out only works when the counterparties — the FCMs, IBs and DCMs — are themselves registered; the relief is for the software layer sitting on top of an already-regulated stack, not a route around registration. Anyone reading this as broad deregulation of trading tools is reading in more than the CFTC wrote.

Opinion, and whose

None stated. The CFTC's release contains no forecast or endorsement, and no outside comment was available to attribute; this item reports only what the agency said.

Sources

• CFTC, Press Release 9300-26, "CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Position to Providers of Passive Software," September 17, 2026 (primary; the agency's own announcement) — provided all facts above. Not marketing.

This is news reporting, not financial or legal advice.