Briefings

Week InAdvance: July 27, 2015

A CFTC advisory panel will meet Wednesday to discuss the agency's plan to rein in speculative trading amid calls to keep the rules from hurting firms that use hedges to limit business risk. The Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee discussion may help shape the regulations, which the CFTC has said it is looking to complete this year. The agency has had to regroup after derivatives-industry groups successfully sued to overturn an earlier version of the restrictions. The CFTC "must make sure that market participants can engage in bona fide hedging," Timothy Massad, the agency's chairman, said in comments about prospective limits on commodity speculation during a May speech in Washington. In addition to pressure from the industry, the agency's moves on position limits are also being watched in Congress, where the House passed a bill including an exemption for energy and agriculture firms in its CFTC reauthorization legislation. The bill is H.R.2289: CFTC Reauthorization - Commodity End-User Relief Act

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