CHAIRMAN CFTC SPEAKS TO FINANCIAL STABILITY OVERSIGHT COUNCIL

FROM: U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION
 
Statement of Chairman Gary Gensler Before the Financial Stability Oversight Council

April 25, 2013
I support the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s (FSOC) annual report and the recommendations. I want thank the FSOC members and their staffs for their work on this year’s important report and capturing the vulnerability to our financial system in its seven themes. I appreciate and wish to compliment their dedication to and coordination on financial reform.

Congress asked us to make recommendations once a year to enhance the integrity, efficiency, competitiveness and stability of U.S. financial markets.

In addition, we are to make recommendations to promote market discipline and maintain investor confidence. In that regard, the report recommends reforms of wholesale funding markets; housing finance; reference rates, such as LIBOR and similar interest rate benchmarks; and heightened risk management and supervisory attention.

Further, the FSOC agencies have made great progress on financial reform since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Working with FSOC agencies, the CFTC has completed most of the Title VII swaps market reforms on transparency, clearing and oversight of swap dealers. The market is increasingly moving to implementation of these common-sense rules of the road.

There are two critical areas, however, in which the CFTC must complete reforms.

First, it is a priority to finish rules to promote pre-trade transparency, including those for swap execution facilities and the block rule for swaps.

Second, it’s a priority that the Commission, working with domestic and international regulators, complete guidance on the cross-border application of swaps market reform.