Given CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo's concern over the rights of market participants to protect their intellectual property, comments on Regulation AT should be read with an open mind.

The substance of Chair White's advice and commentary seems Delphic. Is she telling her successors to be independent of the new administration of the President-elect, or is she articulating her stance toward Senator Elizabeth Warren's various attacks? (See; ; .)

The rule proposal would provide welcome updates to the requirements for the storage of electronic records under CFTC Rule 1.31. Significantly, the proposal would eliminate many of the prescriptive requirements of the current rule, including the need for firms to use outdated "write once, read many" (or "WORM") storage media. Instead, the proposed new rule would adopt a technology-neutral requirement that electronic records be maintained in ways that preserved their "authenticity and…

Commissioner Giancarlo's remarks are positive, given that he must work within the existing Dodd Frank legislation. Under prior management, the CFTC managed to take a bad piece of legislation and turn it into rulemaking that proved to be even worse. Under new management, which understands the benefits that hedging through swaps provides to the financial markets, and which does not bear the burden of having to justify flawed rulemakings from the past, material regulatory progress is possible…