CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad broke his self-imposed silence last week, granting his first interview to Bloomberg TV. While he has been busy making high-profile hires, and the Agency has kept its no-action letter production line up to speed, the market has had little sign of any change in direction under the new helmsman. This rather […]

The EU Council has issued notice of an attaché level meeting on 4 September 2014 to discuss the sharing of data held in trade repositories. However, the promised land is still some way off- the meeting will examine the Commission recommendation for a Council decision to open negotiations on bilateral agreements between the EU and […]

The FT last week reported the latest turn of the regulator’s revolving door. Flamboyant outgone CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton has been retained in an advisory capacity by the Modern Markets Initiative (MMI)[1], a hitherto obscure lobbying group for HFT funds[2]. In his role as regulator, Mr Chilton famously called HFTs “cheetahs”; this was not merely […]

The CFTC has issued three no action letters in as many days, variously relating to: SEF documentation of uncleared swap confirmations, customer account templates for the CME and Indian Rupee clearing by the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. Each is only of specific import, a brief summary follows: SEF Documentation of Uncleared Swap Confirmations: Letter […]

Tomorrow, 30 July 2014, marks the expiry of CFTC No-Action Letter 13-41[1]. The letter granted a one year extension, with modification, to Letter 12-46 permitting Part 20 reporting parties to mask identifying information for trades affected by 3rd country privacy laws. Penalties for privacy infringement vary by country ranging from a 500,000 yuan in the […]

The CFTC has issued a no-action letter providing time-limited relief for compliance with the Ownership and Control Reporting (OCR) Final Rule. The OCR Final Rule was published in the Federal Register on 18 November 2013, obliging full compliance by 15 August 2014. The rule updates three existing forms and introduces two new, imposing additional trader […]

Scott O’Malia’s respite from the derivatives markets has been brief; it is likely the CFTC’s respite from Scott O’Malia will be equally short. ISDA have announced his appointment as chief executive, effective 18 August, succeeding Bob Pickel the CEO of 17 years. “Scott is a respected leader on many key issues affecting our markets, including […]

Commissioner Scott O’Malia, the CFTC’s most trenchant and articulate insider-critic has resigned effective 8 August 2014. He was serving a five year term expiring in April 2015. In his letter to President Obama, he pointedly re-iterated the need for investment in technology and automation, “It is time for the Commission to fully integrate technology into […]

The always-quotable CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia took a leaf from Hippocrates in a recent speech subtitled “Regulators must first do no harm”. His prescriptions for the contagions of market fragmentation, fractured liquidity and parasitical arbitrage, all consequent upon regulatory divergence, are as follows: The Cure Should Not Be Worse than the Disease: Fixing Unworkable Rules. […]