A revised proposal by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for how private swaps can be traded will prevent dealers from losing billions of dollars in revenue, according to Moody's Investors Service analyst Alexander Yavorsky. The commission rewrote a prior attempt at the rule last week after Chairman Gary Gensler pulled the proposal from consideration at a Dec. 9 meeting. The original rule would have required dealers to provide executable prices to all market users of credit-default, interestrate and other swaps prior to any trade being done on an electronic system that mimics how futures

Ryan McKee, a senior director focusing on derivatives regulation at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has been appointed as a professional staffer at the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture under Frank Lucas (R., Okla.), the committee's incoming chairman. McKee was best known for defending corporations against harsh new financial regulations that could raise their costs of hedging. McKee begins her new post in early January. Her role will be to liaise with the CFTC. Date Dec. 20, 2010 Cross References (links require a Cabinet subscription) Dodd-Frank Act, Title VII

ISDA sought and was granted permission to intervene in the case of Lomas and others v JFB Firth Rixson, Inc and others to ensure that arguments reflecting the market's understanding of the construction were made before the Court. The Court found that Section 2(a)(iii) is "suspensive" in effect, overturning the non-binding comments in the Marine Trade case that Section 2(a)(iii) is a once-and-for-all test. It was one of ISDA's key goals in participating in the action to achieve this result. ISDA will consult with its members to agree a form of amendment to Section 2(a)(iii) that ISDA will make

Funding boosts for U.S. federal securities and futures regulators working to implement the new Dodd-Frank financial law are now in doubt after a Senate spending measure collapsed late Thursday. The SEC and CFTC were set to get big funding increases to hire hundreds of staff and make technology upgrades. But time is running out on a Senate deal to approve the increases, making it likely that the two agencies' funding will remain frozen at 2010 levels, along with the rest of the federal government, until next year. Date December 17, 2010

Asking "what are position limits supposed to do, exactly, and how?" economist Craig Pirrong explains why limits currently being considered by the CFTC appear to be "the financial equivalent of leeches or faith heeling." In particular, Pirrong argues that the rationale for the imposition of limits to control "excessive speculation" is "dubious theoretically and empirically," and "will have little, if any effect, on the size, strength, or price impact of [speculative] waves." Pirrong also points out that the concerns with positions held by large funds such as ETFs " is misplaced": "If prices