December 4, 2018

CFTC Commissioner Behnam Announces Members of the Market Risk Advisory Committee’s Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Subcommittee

Washington, DC — Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Rostin Behnam today announced the members of the Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Subcommittee (Subcommittee) of the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee (MRAC).  Commissioner Behnam is the sponsor of the MRAC.

Thomas Wipf, Vice Chairman of Institutional Securities at Morgan Stanley, will chair the 21-member Subcommittee, which is comprised of a wide range of industry participants that have a high-level of expertise and experience with interest rate benchmarks, as well as LIBOR transition efforts, including asset managers, exchanges, clearinghouses, end-users, intermediaries, market makers, service providers, swap execution facilities, and trade associations. 

“I am grateful to all of the extremely qualified individuals who volunteered to join the Subcommittee.  I am confident this group of 21 members will thoughtfully fulfill the stated goals of the Subcommittee by providing the MRAC, and ultimately the Commission, with well-reasoned recommendations that will serve to both guide a smooth transition to a risk-free rate, and ultimately protect millions of American consumers from higher costs,” said Commissioner Behnam.

The Subcommittee was established to provide reports and recommendations to the MRAC regarding ongoing efforts to transition U.S. dollar derivatives and related contracts from LIBOR to a risk-free rate (RFR), the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR), and the impact of such transition on the derivatives markets.  Topics and issues this Subcommittee may consider include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The treatment, under Title VII of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, of existing derivatives contracts that are amended to include new fallback provisions or otherwise reference RFRs such as SOFR and new derivatives contracts that reference RFRs; and
• Impact on liquidity in derivatives and related markets during the transition.

See full list of MRAC Interest Rate Benchmark Reform Subcommittee members under Related Links.