Release: #5058-05
For Release: March 16, 2005

CFTC INTERNATIONAL FUTURES REGULATORS MEETING

Boca Raton, Florida - Financial services regulators from the Bahamas; the Provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, Canada; France; Germany; Hong Kong; Indonesia; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Japan; Korea; Mexico; the Netherlands; Singapore; Spain; Taiwan; Turkey; United Kingdom; and the United States met on March 16, 2005 at the International Regulators Meeting that is hosted annually by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission).

The theme for this year’s meeting was “Risk-Based Supervision in the Current Regulatory Environment.”

On the agenda, were panel discussions on risk-based supervision of markets and firms. Panelists addressed whether and how risk-based supervision models are applied to markets and firms, what types of general oversight, if any, are necessary components of risk-based supervision models, what are the risks that should be in the model and how in fact they are used for supervisory purposes and how, if true, models for firms differ from those models for markets. In addition, discussion took place on the differences between the approaches to risk-based supervision of financial derivatives markets in banking and securities and between the physical commodities arenas such as energy.

There were presentations on the current regulatory activities in Canada, Japan, Singapore and Canada. Topics included: issues related to access to these markets by foreigners, as well as recent changes and developments in laws and regulations. Also, the use of self-assessment surveys in designing audit programs was addressed.

A robust debate was held on whether risk-based supervision conserves regulatory resources while effectively preventing incidents that potentially could shake market confidences.

Commenting on this meeting, Sharon Brown-Hruska, Acting Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said:

“The CFTC is delighted to have this opportunity to offer a forum for international regulators to debate emergent issues, compare views on market innovation and developments, and identify needed regulatory reforms. It has been a long tradition for the Commission to sponsor this forum in conjunction with the Futures Industry Association’s annual conference. As the futures industry continues to globalize, meetings such as this become ever more important for regulators. Such meetings allow us to identify issues of common concern, consider the similarities and differences in the markets we regulate, and advance a discussion that leads to the blending of our regulatory approaches in a way that can foster the most efficient use of regulatory resources and minimize unnecessary duplication or inconsistencies.”

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