The Commodity Futures Trading Commission that handles the derivative marketplace will have a new leadership. President Obama seeks to install a law professor and a former congressional staff into the commission.
The president's office will nominate Chris Bummer, a law professor at Georgetown University, together with Brian Quintenz who is an investment firm founder and was also a former staff of Congresswoman Deborah Pryce.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Quintenz will fill the vacant position of former Republican CFTC member Scott O'Malia who left office in 2014. Bummer, on the other hand, would succeed Mark Wetjen who left the office last year to enter the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.
The CFTC has completed the new regulations and will be focusing on enforcing the law. It has gained new powers to watch over-thE-counter derivatives market in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform. The new derivatives law, however, is on the debate regarding the impact it will have on farmers as well as companies that use swaps to hedge their risk, as per Reuters.
According to Pat Roberts, who leads the Senate Agricultural Committee, Bummer and Quintenz should be sensitive to the needs of the end-users who directly rely on the derivatives to block the price fluctuations that affect their businesses. He added that for the commission to be effective, the nominees should have a deep understanding of agriculture and prioritize the people who uses derivative market risk.
As reported by Bloomberg, former CFTC chairman who served the commission for seven years, Bart Chilton, said he doesn't expect the senate to move quickly in an election year. However Chilton added that the Senate's backgrounds promised for an eventual confirmation.
Bummer has served an academic fellow in the international affairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission and has taught at a number of universities. Quintenz on the other hand, has worked as an analyst and a senior associate with Hill-Townsend Capital LLC and also served one of the former Congressman John Kasich's committee.
