Acting CFTC Chair Cites Recent Accomplishments in Push for Efficiency

CFTC Acting Chair Caroline D. Pham underscored her commitment to "getting back to basics," and announced that in her six-week tenure, "the CFTC has completed or addressed about a fifth of our open matters and dispositioned about a third of our open investigations."

In an address at an International Futures Industry Association Conference, Ms. Pham emphasized that the CFTC has made "real progress to transform the agency and improve the CFTC's operational efficiency and effectiveness." Among other highlights, Ms. Pham:

• emphasized that the CFTC is implementing Executive Orders which mandate addressing key issues related to "organizational structure, lawful governance and enforcement, and regulatory clarity."
• described structural changes, including moving Market Surveillance back to the Division of Market Oversight, obtaining a "real-time market surveillance system," and consolidating the oversight of futures commission merchants and derivatives clearing organizations under one division.
• outlined efforts to improve the CFTC's enforcement process, including (i) issuing a recent "enforcement advisory on self-reporting, cooperation, and remediation," (ii) an upcoming advisory "on how material non-compliance issues will be referred from the operating divisions to the DOE" and (iii) a 30-day compliance and remediation initiative to "expeditiously resolve" open matters. She also encouraged firms under investigation to self-report violations, submit remediation updates and provide "reasonable" settlement offers.
• noted the need for "clear and simple" regulatory rules, including the CFTC's commitment to digital asset innovation.
• said the CFTC was considering reopening the comment period for the 2008 Concept Release on the Appropriate Regulatory Treatment of Event Contracts. She said the agency plans to host a roundtable on prediction markets.