Hearing on Market Regulations Today

March 20, 2000

Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-IL) will hold a panel hearing in Chicago today on a government proposal to give regulatory relief to traditional futures exchanges. The proposal, released last month, gives exchanges more flexibility to compete with foreign trading ventures.

Government and industry officials will discuss regulatory relief for exchanges and investors covered by the Commodity Futures Exchange Act. Fitzgerald, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on research, nutrition and general legislation, is concerned that burdensome regulations could threaten Chicago's futures exchanges and jeopardize more than 150,000 jobs in the city.

Federal regulations on futures trading should be structured to enable traditional futures exchanges to compete with emerging electronic and foreign exchanges, Fitzgerald said. "Our current federal policy fosters regulatory arbitrage in futures trading," said Fitzgerald. "Over time, futures business will naturally migrate to less regulated arenas."

Scheduled to be part of the panel are David Brennan and Thomas Donovan of the Chicago Board of Trade and James McNulty of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Also scheduled to testify are Bob Wilmouth of the National Futures Association, Barry Lind of Lind-Waldock, Jan Waye of Cargill Investor Services, Inc., and David Downey of Interactive Brokers.