SIFMA Submits Letter to Ambassador Gardner on TTIP and Financial Services (with Lofchie Comment)

SIFMA submitted a letter to U.S. Ambassador Anthony L. Gardner supporting his view that a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ("TTIP") is critical for economic growth and job creation. SIFMA stated that a TTIP "offers a unique opportunity for the United States and the European Union to further promote regulatory cooperation."

Lofchie Comment: The global economy would benefit from a financial regulatory system that does not impose double or inconsistent regulations on financial market participants. For several years, efforts at global cooperation, and even cooperation with the SEC, were not a high priority for the CFTC as it rushed to adopt regulations that were earliest in time and broadest in scope. The flaws in this approach are now obvious. Fixes to rules have necessitated hundreds of no-action letters as U.S. financial activities decrease and move offshore and as various first-in-time rules and guidance face legal challenge. Accordingly, the new leadership at the CFTC should support some degree of global rule harmonization and reexamine rules that were not given sufficient scrutiny on the first go-round.

See: SIFMA Letter.Related news: Trade Associations Urge TTIP Negotiators to Include Financial Services Regulatory Coordination in Trade Agreement (July 14, 2014); SIFMA and AFME Jointly Commend EU Commissioner Barnier on TTIP (June 13, 2014); U.S. and European Financial Services Trade Associations Issue Joint Statement on TTIP (March 25, 2014).