CFTC Remarks February 11, 2011 CFTC Commissioner Scott O'Malia issues a dissent from signing the fiscal year 2012 budget request for the CFTC, which requests a 45% increase in federal spending from FY'11 levels, and provides for the hiring of 316 additional Full Time Equivalent employees in FY'12 and an additional 218 contractors. O'Malia complains that "this budget fails to outline a specific strategy for implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act that utilizes technology as a means to leverage budgetary and staff resources in fulfilling the Commission's oversight and surveillance responsibilities

Platts February 11, 2011 Republican efforts to limit funding for the CFTC in in order to hinder development of new over-the-counter derivatives rules could significantly harm the energy industry, according to lawyers, lobbyists, energy traders and former CFTC officials. "Without the proper funding, you may have a regulator that has a new authority without the tools to go about enforcing that authority," Gregory Mocek, an attorney with Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft and a former CFTC director of enforcement, said on the sidelines of a Commodity Markets Council conference this week in Florida.

February 10, 2011 Robert Pickel, Executive Vice Chairman of ISDA, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture regarding implementation of Title VII of Dodd-Frank.

Wall Street Journal February 11, 1011 WSJ editorializes on the lessons of the likely merger of Deutsche Börse/NYSE Euronext, emphasizing that government ("overregulation") has a role in sending trading offshore: "The merger is nonetheless one more lesson in how easily capital, both financial and human, can relocate. It's no coincidence that the heavily regulated equity business has languished or moved out of the U.S., while lightly regulated derivatives markets have boomed in the United States and elsewhere." "If the merger proceeds, the temptation in Washington will be to fret about foreign

Consultation Paper 10 February 2011 The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published a Consultation Paper entitled, "The Client Money and Asset Return (CMAR), Operational Implementation". The protection of a firm's client assets is an integral supervisory priority for the FSA. The CMAR will give an overview of firm-specific client asset positions and holdings in order to facilitate increased FSA regulatory interventions. The FSA intend to issue a related Policy Statement in May 2011, with the final rules coming into force on 1 June 2011.