.jpg)
NYMEX Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: NMX), the parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc., the world's largest physical commodities exchange, today issued the following statement regarding the new initiatives announced today by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC):
NYMEX commends the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on the multiple initiatives the agency announced today to increase the transparency of energy futures markets.
NYMEX President and Chief Executive Officer James Newsome noted, "NYMEX has advocated for greater transparency of futures activity linked to U.S. exchanges occurring on markets regulated by foreign regulators. I applaud the initiatives put forward today, which can only enhance the CFTC's regulatory mission."
One initiative is intended to expand information-sharing received from the U.K. Financial Services Authority for surveillance of energy commodity contracts with U.S. delivery points, including West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures contracts. In addition, the CFTC announced that it will use its existing authority to begin to require traders in the energy markets to provide the agency with monthly reports of their index trading in order to identify more fully the amount and impact of this type of trading.
Moreover, the CFTC announced its intent to develop a proposal that would routinely require more detailed information from index traders and swaps dealers in the futures markets, and to review whether classification of these types of traders can be improved for regulatory and reporting purposes. Some commentators have recently made sweeping assertions regarding the impact of index traders on the basis of distorted and patently erroneous information. Consequently, the Exchange believes that it will be useful to the development of thoughtful public policy for the CFTC to obtain more precise data so as to better assess the amount and impact of this type of trading in the markets.
Finally, in response to the CFTC's extraordinary step of publicly acknowledging an ongoing investigation into crude oil practices generally, the Exchange simply reaffirms its long-standing commitment to provide full assistance to the CFTC on enforcement matters in order to ensure the integrity of U.S. markets.
