U.S. Representative Barney Frank has written a letter to regulators at the CFTC, urging them to make a decision about FX exemptions.
“If Treasury ultimately plans to provide an exemption, it would be a complete waste of time, effort and resources to force companies which will ultimately be exempt to go through the registration process,” Frank wrote to CFTC chairman Gary Gensler and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on September 21.
Frank, who is set to retire in January, coauthored the Dodd-Frank Act, the most wide-seeping financial regulation legislation since the Great Depression.
Frank added that any hesitation over the decision on whether to exempt foreign-exchange swaps may lead market participants to “withdraw from the FX market solely because of inconsistencies between your two agencies’ timetables.”
There is evidence, such a statement made by a senior administration official, that suggests an FX exemption decision may be withheld until after the November elections.