Managed Funds Association urges SEC and CFTC to tighten oversight of event contracts
The Managed Funds Association submitted a comment letter to the CFTC on September 14, 2026, urging tighter oversight of event contracts and perpetual contracts. The trade group wants the SEC and CFTC to establish stronger investor protections and clearer rules for these novel products. It argues that appropriate safeguards would help the markets expand responsibly. The filing comes as federal regulators face competing pressures over which body should govern the growing prediction-markets sector.
The MFA's dual-agency appeal deepens the jurisdictional free-for-all that now engulfs every CFTC-registered platform. Kalshi, Polymarket, and ForecastEx already face state gaming commissions stripping federal preemption and a possible SEC carve-out over equity-linked products. A third front from a major buy-side trade group forces platforms to budget for rule changes from two federal regulators at once, not one.
The CFTC is already defending its authority in court. Any final framework that splits products between agencies would force platforms to build dual compliance stacks. Traders would face contract validity hinging on regulator turf battles, not trade terms. The MFA's call for clearer oversight means platforms may get the certainty they need, but only after navigating months of overlapping comment periods and conflicting signals.
The MFA joins Citadel Securities and state regulators in a widening jurisdictional fight over who governs prediction-market products, with the CFTC already defending its authority against legal challenges and the SEC now facing pressure to claim turf of its own.