Frank Statement on Derivatives

Washington, DC - Today, Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) released the following statement regarding a response received from Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler. Chairman Gensler’s letter was responding to Chairman Frank’s Nov. 4 letter.

“I appreciate Chairman Gensler’s agreeing that we should change the provision of the derivatives bill that he requested that would have put the clearinghouses in charge of determining that a trade is clearable.  As some people pointed out, this could have given rise to a conflict of interest, given the financial stake that many firms have in the ownership of clearinghouses.  While Chairman Gensler originally had indicated that making the clearing determination would be burdensome for the CFTC and thus should be left to the clearinghouses, I am now pleased that he agrees that the regulators should take on this function, which is preferable to the potential conflict. 

“Our committee will work with the CFTC and the SEC in providing them the authority to make these decisions in as an efficient and expeditious manner as possible.”

###