August 16, 2011 On pages 15-18, the editor discusses the CFTC IG report on the agency's failure to engage in meaningful cost/benefit analysis in its Dodd-Frank rulemaking, stating that "key aspects of Dodd-Frank implementation now have real potential to be scuttled." "But we are now convinced that the CFTC will likely find itself hauled into court to explain to a judge why exactly it didn't feel the need to perform the necessary cost-benefit analysis to key rules now under consideration. Considering all the work that agency staff, commissioners and market participants have funneled into this

Financial Times August 16, 2011 The CME Group and IntercontinentalExchange are squaring off over new rules for commodities trading. At issue are proposed rules that would prevent speculators from amassing futures contracts totaling more than 25 per cent of the deliverable supply of a commodity in the days leading up to expiry. But speculators could hold five times as many contracts if they settle only in cash, and do not result in delivery. CME, in a letter dated Monday, opposed the more generous limits for cash-settled contracts, saying they increase the threat of price manipulation and were

NFA News August 12, 2011 NFA has issued a Decision imposing a $2,000,000 monetary sanction against Forex Capital Markets LLC (FXCM) in settlement of a Complaint issued by NFA's Business Conduct Committee on August 12, 2011. The Complaint cited FXCM for retaining gains derived from asymmetrical positive price slippage; failing to adopt or carry out adequate procedures to ensure the efficient execution of all customer orders; failing to treat all customers equally when giving price adjustments; failing to adequately investigate suspicious activity in several customers' accounts; and - together

August 11, 2011 The U.S. Senate is expected to move quickly in September to approve the nomination of Mark Wetjen as a Democratic commissioner at the U.S. futures regulator, a move that could prove crucial as the agency implements a range of sweeping new Wall Street reforms. The earliest the full Senate could move to confirm Wetjen was Sept. 6 when it returns from a nearly month-long recess. The 37-year-old Wetjen would replace outgoing Commissioner Michael Dunn, a Democrat known as an independent voice on the CFTC, which has two Republican commissioners and two Democratic commissioners

Risk.net August 15, 2011 The Swap Execution Facility Clarification Act, introduced to the US Congress on July 19 by Republican congressman Scott Garrett calls for restraint in rulemaking directed at swap execution facilities at the risk of "driving the swaps market to our foreign competitors simply because regulators have resisted providing the methods of swap execution that market participants require". Among other requirements, the Act would prohibit the CFTC and SEC from interpreting the SEF definition to require a minimum number of participants to receive or respond to quote requests, or