This may be viewed as a dispute between Obama-holdover regulators who favor "retail" customers and the new Trump regulators who favor "institutions." More cynically, this may be viewed not so much as protecting "retail" investors as it is throwing a potentially nice-sized bone to class-action lawyers.

The Treasury should be concerned with the risk to individual banks that is posed by class-action lawsuits. If small banks start getting hit with class-action lawsuits that are expensive…

CFTC Chair Giancarlo favors greater flexibility as to the means by which swaps are executed. Having a buy-side group support this direction should be further proof that the Chair is going in the right direction.

Another recommendation by MFA that is worth strong support (and Congressional amendment of Dodd-Frank) is the "made available to trade" process under which an exchange can effectively force a particular type of swap to be traded on exchange (if that type of swap is centrally…

Mr. Pan's interview is directed largely at an audience of European regulators. He carries a combined message of carrot (deference to European regulators as to home market regulation) and stick (don't force central counterparties to move to continental Europe in the wake of Brexit). This carrot and stick approach reiterates the message previously delivered by CFTC Chair Giancarlo. See ; .

On the one hand, Governor Powell insists that banks continue to be important to the financial system. On the other hand, he says that FinTech firms are racing ahead using technology to perform traditional banking tasks better and faster than banks (or most banks, at least).

These messages are not entirely contradictory. Banks, of course, are essential to the financial system. Individual banks, however, are not. Challenges from new technology providers, combined with materially…