For anyone interested in how the debt markets and the economy work, this is a must-read. The agency and the authors of the report should take a bow for turning out something in short order that is both understandable and useful as analysis.

While proponents of Dodd-Frank may believe that the legislation provided substantial safety benefits, that is not in fact so clear, or at least the picture is not so one-sided. In this regard, the report makes the following observations:

The role that ISDA plays in the transference of risk relating to ESG is straightforward: for cases in which market participants seek to transfer ESG risk through contracting, ISDA facilitates that transference. The documentation and other services provided by ISDA help market participants effect transfers of risks, whether of ESG or of currency or other commodity prices, in the most efficient manner at the lowest possible cost.

The CFTC's role ought to be largely the same as that of…

House Financial Services Committee Chair Waters reiterates the criticisms of the Form 13F amendments that were when the SEC first proposed them. For a convincing argument to be made against the Form 13F changes, Representative Waters should explain why the information is important and why no adjustment in the reporting threshold is appropriate 45 years after the statutory provision was adopted. While Representative Waters describes her position in terms of shareholder protection, the burden…

There are undoubtedly similarities between many types of derivative transactions and many SFT transactions. However, at least in the United States, it is the largely arbitrary, but historically ineradicable, distinction in regulatory treatment of the transactions necessitated by the division of authority among the SEC, the CFTC, and the banking regulators that create the operational issues, much more than differences in documentation.