Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Archive

MFA closely monitors legislative and regulatory actions and identifies the issues important to its members. MFA initiatives, on behalf of the industry, often result in comment letters, testimony, news releases and other relevant announcements which are posted herein.

2010: 1 2 3 4 5 <view all 2010>

Posting date
8.9.2010		MFA submitted a letter to the SEC on its Consolidated Audit Trail Proposal. MFA fully supports regulators having efficient access to appropriate granular information. MFA members make significant investments in market research, proprietary investment technology and intellectual property, and the confidentiality of such information is critical to the success of their businesses. As such, MFA has a strong interest in ensuring that the Consolidated Audit Trail Proposal adequately protects intellectual property of market participants and submit comments to the Commission in this respect.
7.9.2010		MFA submitted a letter to the European Commission in response to its Consultation Paper on Short Selling. In our letter, we recommend that: (i) any rules require that reporting to a regulator be non-public and fully protect the confidentiality of the information; (ii) any rules should be based on a de minimis reporting threshold for private reporting to regulators of at least 0.5%; (iii) if there is evidence showing that public disclosure is necessary and beneficial, any rules should only require regulators to make available to the public aggregated anonymised data on short selling using the information privately reported to them, but at a higher threshold (such as 2%); and (iv) any rules prohibiting uncovered or naked short selling of shares should apply where the investor has neither pre-borrowed, agreed to borrow, nor has reasonable grounds that he will be able to borrow the shares by the time of settlement.
7.9.2010		MFA submitted a comment letter in response to the European Commission�s (EC) Consultation Paper on Derivatives and Market Infrastructures. In our letter, MFA applauded the EC�s interest in considering differing market perspectives as it finalizes its draft legislative proposals and policies regarding central clearing, improved transparency and other aspects of the OTC derivatives market. In addition, we expressed our general support of: (i) the bottom-up approach to the EC�s mandatory clearing obligation; (ii) the general approach specified in the consultation paper on organizational requirements and governance processes for European central counterparties (CCPs); (iii) the EC�s rule requiring each clearing member to distinguish and segregate in accounts with the CCP the assets and positions of that clearing member from those of its clients; and (iv) the EC�s principle regarding non-cleared OTC derivatives contracts being reported to a trade repository, but expressed concern regarding the options presented in the consultation paper.
7.8.2010		MFA, together with FIA, CME and NFA, filed an amicus curiae brief in the Hunter v. FERC case. In our brief, we argue that the CFTC has exclusive jurisdiction to regulate futures trading and to police futures trading price manipulation under CFTC rules. We argue that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is overreaching by asserting jurisdiction over a futures trader for futures trading under FERC regulation.
7.6.2010		MFA submitted a letter to the CFTC on its proposed rulemaking on �Co-location/Proximity Hosting Services�. MFA fully supports the CFTC�s efforts to require equal access to co-location and/or proximity hosting services without artificial barriers designed to exclude some market participants. In our letter, we offer comments on the proposal�s provisions on fees and the disclosure of latency information.
6.16.2010		MFA submitted a letter today to the SEC in response to its request for comments on the proposed large trader reporting system. In our letter, MFA generally supports the proposed large trader reporting system as a mechanism that will assist the SEC with its efforts to detect and deter fraudulent and manipulative activity and other trading abuses; however, we suggest some clarifications and revisions to the proposals that we believe would lead to greater efficiency and efficacy of the proposed system. Specifically, in our letter: (i) we suggest that the SEC implement its proposed consolidated audit trail instead of the large trader reporting system, since the large trader reporting system is intended as an interim measure; (ii) we ask the SEC to reconsider the proposed �identifying activity level� thresholds as we believe the thresholds would inadvertently capture a number of infrequent large traders; (iii) we seek clarification on the application of the large trader ids to the typical hedge fund manager structure; (iv) we request that the SEC amend the proposal to impose affirmative confidentiality requirements on dealers; and (v) we suggest that the SEC consult industry participants to develop protections against theft and misappropriation of data received by the SEC related to the proposed large trader reporting system.
6.9.2010		MFA submitted a letter to the SEC in response to the rule proposals from the applicable self-regulatory organizations that would impose circuit breakers to halt trading in any individual security on the S&P 500� Index in the event that the price of such security moves ten percent or more from a sale in a preceding five-minute period. In our letter, MFA supports the proposals and the imposition of the stock-by-stock circuit breakers as a measure that will help to prevent market disruptions and restore confidence in the markets.