Opening Remarks Before Global Markets Advisory Committee Meeting

Commissioner Jill E. Sommers

November 7, 2012

Good Morning. I would like to welcome my fellow Commissioners and all of the Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) members in attendance. And a special welcome to our colleagues from the SEC, as well as a number of foreign jurisdictions around the world. We were able to coordinate this GMAC meeting with an existing IOSCO OTC Derivatives technical meeting, so we are very grateful that you were all able to stay to participate today. I would also like to introduce Ron Filler, who was formerly a long serving member of GMAC, and thank him for agreeing to serve in a newly created role as an outside Chairman of GMAC. As the primary sponsor of the committee I asked the Commission to approve this new structure to assist us with consideration of these very important global market issues. Ron currently serves as the Director of the Center for Financial Services Law at the New York Law School and has been a valuable resource for the Commission for many years on futures issues. As we work to implement this new swaps regime we are grateful for his continued commitment to this agency and to helping us formulate sound policy.

For the past couple of years, the Commission has worked diligently with our colleagues domestically and internationally to coordinate our approaches to regulation of the global swaps market. We have all been eager to address the growing uncertainty brewing among swap market participants who were trying to decipher the extraterritorial reach of the Dodd-Frank Act. The CFTC has issued Proposed Interpretive Guidance and a Proposed Exemptive Order and has received numerous comments from market participants and other regulators. CFTC staff is working diligently to address the challenging issues associated with the statutory language of Section 2(i) of the Commodity Exchange Act and to incorporate the helpful comments we have received into any final Commission documents. Today we are going to hear from Carlene Kim, our CFTC staff member leading this effort, and from SEC staff regarding their agency’s work on these important issues. We are also going to hear from all of the foreign jurisdictions regarding their progress in implementing OTC Derivatives reforms and any concerns they may have with achieving a global approach.

It is my hope that today’s meeting will provide the Commission with the opportunity to listen to all of the comments and concerns and to use this unique opportunity to ask any questions regarding the challenges to applying a sensible approach to these cross-border matters.

This Commission has worked for decades to establish relationships, built on respect and trust, with our foreign counterparts. Global coordination is a key element to any successful regime to regulate the OTC Derivatives markets. Again, I want to thank the SEC and all of the other foreign regulators for being here today to help us identify any conflicts with the cross-border application of Dodd-Frank so that we can accomplish harmonization with the rest of the world, both in substance and in timing.

Last Updated: November 7, 2012