Statement on Support of Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Authority to Designate Financial Market Utilities as Systemically Important
Chairman Gary Gensler
November 23, 2010
I support the advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on the Authority to Designate Financial Market Utilities as Systemically Important. It is an important step in fulfilling the requirements of the Dodd-Frank Act to ensure that there is robust oversight and risk management of financial market utilities including clearinghouses.
Clearinghouses in the futures markets have been around since the late-19th Century and have functioned both in clear skies and during stormy times – through the Great Depression, numerous bank failures, two world wars and the 2008 financial crisis – to lower risk to the American public. By standing between two counterparties, by valuing transactions daily, requiring collateral, and rigorous risk management standards, clearinghouses help ensure that the failure of one entity does not harm its counterparties and reverberate throughout the financial system. Comprehensive and robust regulatory oversight of clearinghouses, however, is essential to our country’s financial stability. This is particularly important since, under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, standardized swaps between financial entities must be brought to clearinghouses.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has overseen clearinghouses for decades. Currently, it oversees 14 clearinghouses and that number is expected to increase to approximately 20. The Dodd-Frank Act provides for enhanced oversight of these clearinghouses. In close consultation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, other financial regulatory agencies, and international regulators, the CFTC is currently working to implement a series of rulemakings on risk management for clearinghouses. These rulemakings will take account of relevant international standards, particular those developed by the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (CPSS-IOSCO). In some instances, these rules also outline specific additional requirements for systemically important clearinghouses.
The Dodd-Frank Act gives the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the Federal Reserve Board important roles in clearinghouse oversight by authorizing the Council to designate certain clearinghouses as systemically important and by permitting the Federal Reserve to recommend heightened prudential standards in certain circumstances.
The advanced notice of proposed rulemaking being considered by this Council today complements the CFTC’s rulemaking efforts. It seeks the public’s input on how the Council should apply statutory criteria to determine which clearinghouses qualify for designation as systemically important.
At the CFTC, we plan on completing the rulemaking with regard to clearinghouses by the statutory deadline of July 15, 2011. Although the effective dates of these rules will generally be later in 2011, it is my recommendation that we as a Council be in position to identify systemically important clearinghouses by the summer of next year. This will provide clarity to clearinghouses and market participants as to the standards that they will have to uphold when the mandatory clearing of standardized swaps becomes effective.
Last Updated: December 2, 2010