Remarks before the Eighth Annual Women in Power Forum, Washington, DC (Speech)

Remarks by CFTC Commissioner Jill Sommers

CFTC Commissioner Sommers discusses policy issues in connection with the agency's implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, the European Market Infrastructure Regulation, and the European Commission's proposals to amend both the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) and Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation (MiFIR).

She also commented in regards to the CFTC's position limit rules, noting that: i) "The Commission's final rules narrow the circumstances under which bona-fide hedgers can hedge their price risk, make it more inefficient for them to hedge in certain circumstances," and ii) "The consequences of the required aggregation, and the rigid and limited exemptions for affiliated entities have not been fully thought through."

With respect to the major definitions being considered and the de minimus exemption, she stated: "Our goal should not be to regulate merely for the sake of regulating. It is my hope that . . . the scope of the definitions are rationally related to achieving the regulatory goal of identifying and diminishing system risk."

Finally, Comm. Sommers states that notwithstanding the CFTC's new authorities, "it is premature for us to assume that the agency will need to increase both our staff and our budget by more than three fold in order to implement the new authority."

Cross References: Dodd-Frank Section 721 737; 75 FR 80174 76 FR 71626