Equating cross-border exemptions to a last-minute, “backdoor repeal” of derivatives reforms demanded by the Dodd-Frank Act, members of the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform are urging regulators to focus on domestic protections ahead of international concerns and big bank lobbying efforts.
During a press conference held Wednesday by the coalition of nearly 250 national and state organizations, several of its members said rules intended to bring transparency and safety to previously unregulated derivatives markets are threatened by delays in applying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s new rules to international swaps activity. Exemptions for transactions conducted through overseas subsidiaries would undermine the intent of the Dodd-Frank Act’s reforms, they said.
