Risk Desk Editor Reviews CFTC Position Limits Debate
The Risk Desk editor John R. Sodergreen reported on the controversy over the CFTC's position limit rules. The CFTC voted unanimously to finalize amendments to its existing position limits aggregation rule and re-propose a rule that would impose federal position limits on 25 futures contracts and economically equivalent swaps. Mr. Sodergreen described how the vote took place in spite of Congressional opposition to position limits rules.
Mr. Sodergreen noted a letter from House Committee on Agriculture Chair Michael Conaway to CFTC Chair Timothy Massad that identified Regulation AT, position limits and cross-border rules specifically as items to be "removed from the agency's to-do list immediately." Similarly, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy wrote a letter to all "Secretaries, Administrators, Directors and Commissioners," asking them to "refrain from acting with undue haste" on "finalizing pending rules or regulations in the administration's last days."
Mr. Sodergreen postulated that the CFTC's revisions to Regulation AT could share the fate of the position limits rules, since the comment period for the revisions is set to expire days before the President-elect takes office.
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