Prepared statement of Walter L. Lukken delivered to the US House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture at 12 May, 2022, hearing titled "Changing Market Roles: The FTX Proposal and Trends in New Clearinghouse Models"
FIA has filed public comments with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission in response to a request by FTX US Derivatives to amend its order of registration as a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) and allow it to modify its existing non-intermediated model.
The US House Agriculture Committee held a hearing on 31 March featuring Rostin Behnam, chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, to discuss the agency's current priorities and upcoming work areas. The hearing, titled "The State of the CFTC," was dominated by questions related to the regulation of futures based on bitcoin and other digital assets.
Opening remarks of Walt Lukken, President and CEO of FIA, at the FIA Boca conference. In his speech, Lukken discussed innovation, crypto derivatives and the importance of well-regulated markets.
Big capital raises from up-and-coming firms alongside some high-profile mergers tell the story of an evolving industry, with trends in trading technology and digital assets at the forefront.
The US Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing titled "Examining Digital Assets: Risks, Regulation, and Innovation" on 9 February, where discussion centered in large part on the best way to provide regulatory certainty for emerging digital asset markets.
Timothy Massad, former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and former assistant secretary of the Treasury for financial stability, delivered the following speech at the FIA/SIFMA Asset Management Derivatives Forum on 7 February in Dana Point, Calif.
Cash-settled futures on bitcoin have been a smash success for CME, but they sometimes diverge from prices in the spot market. That has spurred interest in physically delivered contracts. Much like in the classic agricultural futures markets, the buyers and sellers of these contracts are obligated to exchange the underlying cryptocurrency when the contract expires. This mechanism effectively forces the spot and futures prices to converge at settlement.
Since 2018, CME Group has been the leader in offering a fully regulated marketplace for bitcoin futures. Its dominant position is now being challenged, however, with two large market operators stepping into the space through acquisitions.
FIA PTG filed a letter of conditional support with the SEC for a proposed rule change by BATS regarding expedited suspension proceedings and preventing layering and spoofing.
The FIA Principal Traders Group sent a letter to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on June 19, 2015 expressing its support for the exemption from the Trading Activity Fee that FINRA has proposed for certain transactions executed by proprietary trading firms. The group offered several suggestions for modifying the scope of the proposal so that it is based on the nature of the transaction rather than the nature of the firm.
The FIA Principal Traders Group today issued the following statement in response to the issuance of several proposed rules by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.
The FIA Principal Traders Group participated in a wide-ranging discussion on equity market structure issues yesterday with members of the House Financial Services Committee and other market participants at a roundtable hosted by Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.). FIA PTG’s representative, Patrick Hickey, head of market structure at Optiver US, emphasized the value of automated trading as a tool for market making and the importance of avoiding “one size fits all” solutions to market structure issues.
