CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler delivered remarks before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Seventh Annual Capital Markets Summit regarding the need to move on from the continued use of LIBOR, Euribor and similar benchmark interest rates. Chairman Gensler said the shift away from banks funding each other in the unsecured market (without posting collateral) has led to a scarcity or outright absence of actual transactions underpinning LIBOR and other benchmark rates. As a result of having benchmark rates not anchored in actual transactions, he said that market integrity has been undermined and the

The SEC adopted a final rule that streamlines the SEC rule approval process for clearing agencies that are registered with both the SEC and the CFTC. The final rule, which adopts and expands upon an interim rule, allows rule changes filed with dually registered clearing agencies to become effective without SEC action when the rule is related to products that are not securities, including securities futures, swaps that are not securities-based swaps or mixed swaps, and forwards that are not security forwards. The rule change does not significantly affect the clearing agencies' securities

The SEC announced the opening of registration for its National Compliance Outreach Program for Broker-Dealers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the SEC Headquarters in Washington, D.C. View Press Release and Agenda here (link externally to SEC website).

The U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") released two reports regarding opportunities and actions to reduce "fragmentation," "overlap" and "duplication" in the government (see page 2 of the GAO report for a very nice visual explanation of what these terms mean) and to achieve other financial benefits. In a number of areas, including catfish inspection and geospatial investments, the GAO report identified financial benefits that could result if executive branch agencies or Congress took action. For example, as to catfish, the GAO report found that millions of dollars could be saved by

The CFTC Staff held a meeting with TeraExchange regarding SEF Registration. Click here to view meeting information.