(John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are
his own)
By John Kemp
LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Major swap dealing banks and
associations representing the financial services industry have
been engaging intensively with the U.S. Commodity Futures
Trading Commission (CFTC) over the last two years to shape the
myriad of new rules the commission has been crafting to
implement the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act.
Since 2010, the CFTC has published a brief summary of all
meetings between outside organisations and commissioners or
staff about the implementation of Dodd-Frank regulations, in a
bid to improve the transparency of the rulemaking process.
The records provide only very limited information about the
participants at each meeting and the topic(s) discussed. But
they do provide some indication of the intensity and focus of
interactions between industry and the commissioners.
The attached table summarises meetings between each of the
five commissioners and the major banks and financial services
lobbying organisations since the start of 2012, compiled from
records published on the commission’s website:
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TABLE:
Click to access CFTC-MEETINGS.pdf
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It overstates the total number of meetings since some are
counted more than once, when a commissioner met more than one
bank or organisation at the same time.
For example, on March 13, CFTC records show Commissioner
Scott O’Malia held a single meeting attended by representatives
from Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Barclays as well
as Newedge and Professor Ron Filler from New York Law School, to
discuss “general” rulemaking.
Nevertheless, a broad pattern emerges of engagement between
the industry and different commissioners since the start of the
year.
The records show a much higher level of interaction
(measured by phone calls and meetings) with O’Malia (a strong
advocate for rigorous cost-benefit analysis) and the newest
commissioner Mark Wetjen (who was only sworn in last October and
is seen as a possible swing voter) than any of the three others.
(Editing by Anthony Barker)
