Health care reform and consumer protection has overshadowed derivatives reform for weeks, and the NY Times has finally shined the spot light back on the developing OTC derivative landscape. In the article, I specifically point out the less than ideal approach of having both the SEC and CFTC oversee the market and the fact that […]
Category: In the News
Senator Seeks to Limit Banks’ Role in Derivatives (NY Times)
The Senate has its own version of the Lynch Amendment passed by the House in December courtesy of Rep. Brown. I understand the general concern of leaving too much power with the dealers, but limiting their investment in crucial market venues will ultimately limit competition and innovation. My quote in the article: “I can’t imagine […]
Why the Back Office Avoids The Cloud. Hint: It’s Not Technical. (Securities Industry News)
This article refers to a presentation I gave in Boston on March 22, 2010 about cloud computing in financial services. Sure people are using Salesforce.com and other SaasS applications, but the use of cloud computing as an approach to resource allocation has a long way to go. A small excerpt from the article: That’s the […]
‘Several Competing’ Clearing Houses Needed for Swaps (Securities Industry News)
I participated in a panel discussion this morning focused on opportunities for execution venues an exchanges created by OTC derivatives reform. As legislation will likely push standardized OTC products onto execution platforms (not necessarily exchanges mind you), the opportunities for these platforms (many owned by inter-dealer brokers) are numerous. Securities Industry News covered the event: […]
As Financial Reformer, Dodd, Again, Dogged by Appearance of Conflict (ABC News)
Now not only is Dodd being picked on for his politics, but for the fact that his wife works at the CME. I think this is a bit blown out of proportion, but per my comments in the article there is no denying that proposed legislation will help the exchanges looking to clear OTC Derivatives. […]
Dodd Measure Would Limit Hedge Funds, Prop Trading (MarketsMedia)
Regardless of how much proposed financial reform legislations cuts down on proprietary trading by the banks (if at all), we still have a few years to go before new rules would take effect. My comments from the article: It’s likely that some form of legislation will be enacted before the end of the year. “Final […]
Dodd Broadens Major Swap Player Definition (Derivatives Week)
We should get much more information about the Senate’s view on OTC derivative reform on Friday when the first amendment to the bill is expected. In the meantime: While most derivative pros did not expect the broader definition in Dodd’s revised bill, they believe the Reed-Gregg amendment will focus heavily on exemptions. “The way it […]
‘Stricter’ OTC Derivatives Bill Expected, Morgan Stanley Says (Bloomberg)
Turned out the Dodd bill published on Tuesday was a bit of a non-event for OTC derivatives reform. Looks like the forthcoming amdendment from Sens. Reed and Gregg will lay out the real details for OTC derivatives. Even still, some interesting differences do exist between the wording in the House and Senate bills. My comments […]
OTC Derivative Reform – Coming up to the Majors?
On March 14, 2010 Senator Dodd and the Senate Banking Committee released their latest Financial Reform Bill. Broadly speaking, the few hundred pages of this bill dedicated to reforming the OTC derivatives market showed few major changes from either the previous Senate bill release in November 2009 or the House Bill passed in December 2009. This does not come as much of a surprise as the major tenets of OTC derivative reform appear to be decided – standardized products will be traded through a registered platform and centrally cleared, dealers will register with the SEC and/or CFTC based on the products they trade and all OTC derivatives trades not cleared will be reported to a trade repository and subject to margin requirements. The devil however, continues to be in the details.
Bloomberg – Goldman Sachs Demands Derivatives Collateral It Won’t Dish Out
Between AIG and the push for central clearing of OTC derivatives, collaterals has become a pretty hot topic lately. Yet again the focus is on Goldman, with claims that while they are demanding more collateral from trading counterparties they are unwilling to post the same levels of collateral on their own trades. And as with […]