Comment Text:
The Honorable Timothy G. Massad, Chairman
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Three Lafayette Centre
1155 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20581
202-418-5000
202-418-5521, fax
202-418-5514, TTY
E-mail: http://comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/ReleasesWithComments.aspx
Re: Delaying the lowering of de minimis threshold hurts oversight, protections for counterparties
Dear Chairman:
Deep disappointment is expressed that you have delayed by one year the lowering of the “de minimis” threshold that requires Swap Dealers to register with the Commission. Earlier this year, lawmakers urged the Commission to allow the de minimis phase-in threshold of $8 billion to fall to $3 billion on December 31, 2017 as scheduled. This delay creates the potential for loss of protections to the counterparties of dealers, to the swaps market overall, and to the public more broadly.
This is something the Commission itself implicitly acknowledged in the joint final rule with the SEC, which noted that “a de minimis exception, by its nature, will eliminate key counterparty protections” and that the “broader the exception, the greater the loss of protection.” Further, I remain concerned that the current phase-in threshold is so high that it is excluding from oversight many non-financial commodity derivatives dealers — as significant players in the oil and natural gas derivatives markets such as Trafigura, Vitol, Statoil, and Koch Supply and Trading are not registered. The decision by you means that many derivatives business will continue to operate for two more years without the new oversight Congress mandated they receive.
Thank you for the opportunity to bring these remarks to your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Robert E. Rutkowski
cc:
Speaker Paul Ryan
Office of the Speaker
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Senator Mitch McConnell
Senate Majority Leader
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Fax: (202) 224-2499
House Democratic Whip Office
Senator Harry Reid
The Hon. Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader
United States Capitol
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