Technology Advisory Committee and Renewal of the Committee Charter and Membership

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the Technology Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting.

In addition to introducing the newest members of the TAC as part of the biennial renewal of the Committee charter, this meeting will focus on two significant issues facing the futures and swaps industries as the Commission continues to finalize rules under the Dodd-Frank Act. These issues are: (1) automated and high frequency trading (HFT); and (2) the aggregation of liquidity across designated contract markets (“DCMs”) and swap execution facilities (“SEFs”).

New Members to the TAC Bring Breadth and Depth of Industry Knowledge

Joining the newly chartered “TAC 2.0” are Evelyn Fuhrer of Promontory, David Hartney of Bank of America, Ben MacDonald of Bloomberg LP, Robert Garrison of DTCC, Julian Harding of the Wholesale Market Brokers Association, Mike Evans of BG Americas, Stephen Humenik of Eris Exchange, Lee Olesky of Tradeweb, Supurna Vedbrat of BlackRock, John Lothian of John J. Lothian & Company, Clifford Lewis of State Street Global Markets, Pierre Lamy of Goldman Sachs, Marshall Terry of South Ferry Capital Partners, Jeffrey Trahan of Deere & Company, Wallace Turbeville of Dēmos, and James Rowen of Renaissance Technologies. These new and highly qualified members bring insight and expertise from exchanges, data and technology development, design, and operational firms, buy and sell-side interests, end-users, and the public as a whole.

The following individuals will continue to serve on TAC 2.0: John Bates of Progress; Gary DeWaal of Newedge USA; Richard Gorelick of RGM Advisors; Michael Gorham of the Illinois Institute of Technology; Chris Heymeyer of the National Futures Association (NFA); Steven Joachim of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA); Bryan Durkin of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME Group); and Chuck Vice of the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

Meeting to Focus on HFT and the Future of Trading Across Multiple Platforms

Wednesday’s meeting will be divided into two panels. The first panel will focus on presentations from the four working groups comprising the Subcommittee on Automated and High Frequency Trading. Each working group will report on their progress towards defining HFT in the context of automated trading, identifying HFT strategies, exploring oversight and surveillance of automated trading and HFT, and identifying market microstructure issues while providing a framework for open discussion within the full TAC. The second panel will focus on issues relating to the aggregation of liquidity across DCMs and SEFs in the post-Dodd-Frank world. Five presenters representing SEFs, DCMs, and platform/exchange aggregation models will introduce their offerings for efficient execution and optimal liquidity and open the floor to discussion as to how the interaction of the various models will impact the markets in terms of, among other things, participation, structure, competition and costs of execution and clearing.

Commissioner Scott D. O’Malia, the chairman of the TAC, stated that, “I am thrilled to have 24 experts who can provide advice and counsel to improve the Commission’s technological capacity to oversee futures and derivative markets. The Commission’s rules have benefitted from their input already, and we will continue to rely on their market expertise going forward. ”

Commissioner O’Malia noted that, “Today’s agenda covering high frequency trading definitions and swap trade execution represents two of the most dynamic elements of this market. Developing a clear understanding of the current and future market practices will significantly impact our policy and rulemaking decisions going forward.”

The TAC meeting is open to the public. Audio of the meeting will be available via listen-only conference call. Additionally, a video recording of the meeting will be available through a link on the CFTC’s website: www.cftc.gov.

Last Updated: June 21, 2012