CFTC Reviewing Over 1 Million E-mails in ISDAfix Interest-rate Swaps Investigation

CFTC investigators are reviewing over one million e-mails and instant messages as part of an investigation into possible price manipulation of ISDAfix interest-rate swaps. The electronic communication search comes just a few months after the records were collected under subpoena for evidence that the world’s largest banks rigged the ISDAFIX swaps rate. According to Bloomberg.com, the CFTC investigators are...

With the CFTC’s approval of the SEF rules last Thursday, swap users and would-be SEFs are targeting early December as the time when all swap users will be transacting standardized swaps on SEFs. According to Reuters, the exact date is still a moving target until the CFTC publishes the rules in the Federal Register. Reuters reports that many firms expect December 9 to be the exact date, citing the final phase of...

On Thursday the CFTC approved the Swaps Block Rule, the Made Available to Trade Rule, the SEF rules, and the Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement on Disruptive Practices.The Swaps Block Rule and the Made Available to trade rule were passed 3-2, the SEF rules were passed 4-1 and the Interpretive Guidance and Policy Statement on Disruptive Practices passed unanimously.Commissioner Gensler has pushed for these...

At 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, the CFTC held an open meeting to consider trade execution rules and interpretive guidance regarding anti-disruptive trading practices authority. The final rules being that were voted on included: Procedures to Establish Appropriate Minimum Block Sizes for Large Notional Off-Facility Swaps and Block Trades (Swaps Block Rule); Process for a Designated Contract Market or Swap Execution Facility to...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) intends to will reveal it’s new rule on speculative positions limits within the next six weeks. The news comes after the agency’s previous attempt to have the rule passed was rejected in a September 2012 court ruling. The original rule approved by the CFTC in October 2011 would have capped the holdings of futures and options for 28 commodities and their derivatives. The...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commision (CFTC) is investigating a large number of trades in energy and metal markets to determine whether traders illegally used over-the-counter swaps markets to trade futures. According to Reuters, the CFTC has asked the largest banks for data going back to 2010 as part of the agency’s probe. The CFTC’s inquiry, which is known as a “special call”, was into exchanges of futures...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is considering making adjustments to the Enhancing Protections Afforded Customers and Customer Funds Held by Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations proposed rule. According to CNBC, it is still unclear what changes the CFTC will make to the rule, which will require futures brokers to keep excess funds that exceed total customer deficits on hand...