By Douwe Miedema
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. swaps regulator on
Monday named a veteran of its enforcement unit to head its
markets oversight unit, as the agency deals with a raft of
high-profile commodities markets probes.
Vincent McGonagle, who has worked at the Commodity Futures
Trading Commission’s enforcement division for nearly 16 years,
played a leading role in the probe into the widely used London
interbank offered rate (Libor) benchmark scandal, the CFTC said.
He will take over as head of the Division of Market
Oversight on Oct. 7. The division can start market probes and
request information from market participants, but lacks the
power to subpoena companies or individuals.
McGonagle supervised the CFTC’s cases against UBS AG
, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Barclays
Plc, which paid hefty fines for manipulating Libor.
The CFTC, whose powers were vastly expanded in the 2010
Dodd-Frank law to include oversight of swaps, has recently been
involved in several prominent market probes.
Led by ex-Goldman Sachs banker Gary Gensler, the
agency has subpoenaed a number of major metals warehousing
firms, including Switzerland’s Glencore, following
complaints about inflated metals prices.
The CFTC is also probing ISDAfix, a commonly used
derivatives benchmark, and is in talks to join Europe in its
investigation of oil markets, hunting for signs that trading
benchmarks have been compromised.
