CME, CBOT, NYMEX Respond To Report Of President's Working Group On Financial Markets

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) today jointly released the following statement in response to today's release of the report of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets: "We agree that OTC markets suffer from legal uncertainty that should be resolved by changing the Commodity Exchange Act. However, any attempts at serious regulatory reform should be fair and even-handed for OTC and exchange markets, and the Working Group's report falls far short of meeting that standard. While the working group recognizes the regulatory disparities and blurred product distinctions that handcuff U.S. exchanges in today's competitive global market, the report does almost nothing to address those issues. This omission is a serious flaw. "The major U.S. futures exchanges will continue to insist on fundamental fairness in any legislation to reform the U.S. regulatory structure. We hope to work with the President's Working Group and the Congress to provide that kind of comprehensive reform of the risk management markets. Congressional leaders have demonstrated their commitment to tackling some difficult market disparities, and CFTC Chairman Rainer highlighted his support for serious reform in a recent speech to industry leaders in Chicago. We look forward to continuing our joint effort to serve customers worldwide with more efficient and effective market regulation."