Good morning and welcome to the first Global Markets Advisory Committee (GMAC) meeting of 2020.

I would like to begin by acknowledging that this meeting looks much different than I envisioned even a few short months ago.  While we are not in the same room today, I’m grateful that we can hold this meeting and move forward with the GMAC’s priorities in a format that ensures the health and safety of GMAC members, Commission staff and the public.

I would like to thank Chairman Tarbert and my fellow Commissioners for attending today’s meeting and for your contributions to the discussion.  I would also like to thank the GMAC members who are in attendance and who will no doubt engage in a robust discussion of today’s presentations.  In addition, I would like to thank today’s presenters, Mr. Suyash Paliwal and Ms. Wendy Yun.  Finally, I would like to thank Andrée Goldsmith, the GMAC Designated Federal Officer, for organizing today’s meeting and Chair Angie Karna for her leadership of the GMAC.

Today’s meeting will feature two presentations.  The first, from Suyash Paliwal, Director of the CFTC’s Office of International Affairs, will focus on coordination efforts among the international regulatory community in the face of recent market events.  As we are all aware, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected economies all over the globe, and Mr. Paliwal and his team have been key players in engaging with international coordination efforts during this unprecedented period of market volatility.  The international regulatory community has come together to address the challenges caused by the global pandemic and the CFTC has played a leadership role in those endeavors.

Next, we will turn to the work of the GMAC Subcommittee on Margin Requirements for Non-Cleared Swaps.  Following the last GMAC meeting in September, during which the GMAC heard several presentations on the unique challenges posed by the later implementation phases of margin requirements for non-cleared swaps, the Commission established the Subcommittee.  In our public solicitation for Subcommittee nominations it became obvious that the interest in this matter is vast and the viewpoints are many.  It is therefore remarkable that such a diverse group of representatives was able to deliver a report to the Committee in a relatively compressed timeframe, further complicated by an unprecedented global pandemic.  The Subcommittee’s mandate was to examine the implementation of margin requirements for non-cleared swaps, to identify challenges associated with forthcoming implementation phases, and to recommend actions the Commission may take to mitigate any challenges identified.

The Subcommittee took that mandate and ran with it.  In just a few short months, the Subcommittee has prepared a detailed report outlining several challenges posed by the upcoming implementation phases of margin requirements for non-cleared swaps, and recommending a number of specific potential actions to mitigate these challenges.  The Subcommittee continued its hard work even as its members were responding to recent market events, and the timing of margin requirements was evolving within the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and International Organization of Securities Commissions.

In short, the effort to get this report before the Committee today was no small task, and I know the full GMAC has carefully considered its content.  I want to thank Warren Gorelick and Carmen Moncada-Terry from the Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight for their engagement with the Subcommittee.  I also want to offer appreciation to each member of the Subcommittee, and especially Subcommittee Chair Wendy Yun, for your hard work.  I’m so pleased that many of you could attend this meeting today.  I look forward to hearing the presentation.