"Olympic-Caliber Regulatory Regime"

Statement of Commissioner Bart Chilton Before the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee, Washington, DC

July 26, 2012

Good morning.  Thanks to all of you for being here.  Thanks especially to Commissioner O’Malia for organizing this meeting in such short order.

It is clear that some futures firm fraudsters can cost a lot of people a lot of money when they put their minds to it.  We need to do a better job and have the right tools to protect those customers’ funds. We need regular and robust deep data dives to make sure customer money is where it’s supposed to be 24-7-365.  We need an insurance fund like the securities and banking worlds already have as a backstop for customers.  We need to make sure that we can’t have the wool pulled over our eyes by somebody with Photoshop and a bottle of white out.

In most team sports like when we watch the Olympics, a fake is a good thing, at least for the offensive team.  Not so much for the defense, and not so much for regulators.  We have to be able to see around corners and, sadly, be very, very suspicious. We need to have an Olympic-caliber regulatory oversight regime. 

Much of what is needed comes down to technology, thus this meeting.  We need the technology to do those deep data dives and to make sure we’re not being faked out.  And, we need good guys who are better at using the technology than are the bad guys.

Thank you again for taking time to help out.

Last Updated: July 26, 2012