Washington, D.C. — CFTC Commissioner Caroline D. Pham announced today that Keaghan Ames will join her staff and serve as Counselor & Senior Policy Advisor starting May 23.

Commissioner Pham stated: “I am so pleased to announce that Keaghan is joining my team. He brings with him deep policy expertise, practical regulatory implementation experience, and a well-rounded understanding of regulated markets and registrants. Keaghan has been a trusted advisor to executives throughout his career and I am confident his background and skill set will serve the Commission well during this critical time.”

Keaghan Ames, Counselor & Senior Policy Advisor

Keaghan Ames joins the CFTC from the Institute of International Bankers (IIB), where he served as the Director of Federal Government Affairs. While at the IIB, Keaghan represented the U.S. operations of internationally headquartered financial institutions on capital markets, prudential, and tax policy matters before Congress and U.S. federal prudential and market regulators, as well as the New York Department of Financial Services.

Prior to the IIB, Keaghan worked at Credit Suisse Securities (USA) as Head of U.S. Regulatory Policy, where he advised senior executives on key regulatory policy developments and impacts, including swap margin rules, CFTC and SEC cross-border derivatives regulatory frameworks and swap data reporting reforms, prudential tailoring under S-2155, Basel III, and digital assets regulation. Keaghan advocated on the firm’s investment banking, holding company, and asset management issues with the CFTC, SEC, Federal Reserve Board, FDIC, and international standard setting bodies such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and IOSCO. Keaghan previously worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he advised large financial institutions on implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, MiFID II, and CFTC and SEC swap dealer registration.

While in law school, Keaghan worked as a law clerk for CFTC Commissioner J. Christopher Giancarlo. Keaghan received a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School and a B.A. from the George Washington University.