The U.S. House has passed a bill that will loosen the federal government’s grip over the trading of foreign derivatives.
The FX exemption was passed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers on a 301-124 vote.
According to Bloomberg, supporters of the bill feel that this exemption is crucial to giving U.S. firms a strong position in the foreign exchange markets. However, opponents feel that regulation systems in outside countries are weaker and could result in endangering the financial system as a whole.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was prepared to supervise all derivatives trading, including FX trading ─however the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took a more hands-off approach by allowing overseas derivative trading to bypass U.S. regulation if the country in which they occur had a regulation system that closely resembles our own.