Comment Text:
The CFTC has been doing a terrible job at making the swap data available and ingestible to the public. When Mr. Benham delayed swap reporting AGAIN, he personally enabled the players in the market who aim not to invest but obfuscate. The CFTC has favored large institutions for too long and been privy to the opinions of industry players above it’s role as a regulator.
The CFTC should work on getting credibility back in the public eye and make reporting requirements more stringent and with greater penalties for making information intentionally vague. I understand proprietary ways to make money, but if the regulator is only helping prioritize the needs of major swap dealers and buyers, how is a retail investor to do their own research? When a company I buy has untold millions in swaps and contracts for difference that by law they don’t have to report, how does an average investor actually know what the company’s position is? The answer is they cannot. Sunlight is the best disinfectant and the CFTC needs a big dose of sunlight. To anyone looking at this objectively, this commission has punted it’s duties to protect the public and has instead become a lackey to a financial industry who will continue to add industry friendly commissioners to the people’s commissions.
CFTC needs to make reporting data more specific, less dodgy and reported more often. The spreadsheets I’ve opened of swap reports are equivalent to work that if submitted in any grade school in America would be seen as incomplete. The fact that the CFTC allows for such bad data to exist and doesn't have an appetite to make swaps publicly available, I find the CFTC is a toothless commission who has had their teeth removed by poor leadership and a wanton desire to please the wealthiest and powerful over the average citizen.
More swap reporting, more often and with actual data.
