CFTC Commissioner Jill E. Sommers delivered a statement on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's ("CME") request for CFTC approval of new Chapter 10 and new Rule 1001. While Commissioner Sommers agreed with the CFTC's view of the consistency of CME Rule 1001 with the Commodity Exchange Act ("Act"), she stated that she would have taken it a step further and explicitly provided that the Part 45 rules do not apply to cleared swaps. To that end, Sommers stated she believes that there is an important distinction to be made between cleared and uncleared swaps: Since the CEA and the CFTC rules don’t

In his speech, CFTC Commissioner Scott O'Malia discussed the reasons he chose to abstain from participating in the CFTC's approval of CME Rule 1001. Commissioner O'Malia stated he believes that the CFTC failed to make any meaningful distinction between swap transactions submitted for clearing and those which were entered into on a bilateral basis and not cleared through a derivatives clearing organization. O'Malia also stated his belief that the ambiguity in Part 45 is unacceptable, and that Part 45 must be amended to reconcile its requirements with existing CFTC regulations and industry

The Federal Reserve released its Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test 2013: Stress Test Methodology and Results. View results in full (Federal Reserve website). See also: Press Release.

Governor Jerome H. Powell spoke before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban affairs in Washington D.C. with regard to the role that the Federal Reserve plays in the U.S. Government's effort to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. During his speech, Governor Powell highlighted the following points: The Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA") requires supervised institutions to establish a BSA compliance program. The Federal Reserve conducts a BSA and Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") compliance program review to ensure that all banks are meeting their requirements

The U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has started its consultations to reauthorize the CFTC. Committee Chairwoman, Debbie Stabenow, and Committee Ranking Member, Thad Cochran, have both called for a "bipartisan, open and consensus-driven" reauthorization process. Written submissions will be considered until May 1, 2013. View letter in full here (links externally to Senate Committee website).