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One Last Note to CFTC Staff
Statement of Chairman Gary Gensler: One Last Note to CFTC Staff, January 3, 2014.
January 3, 2014--Dear Colleagues,
I want to thank all of you for welcoming me into the CFTC family these last five years.
Five years ago, when the President was formulating his financial reform proposals, he placed tremendous confidence in this small agency, which for eight decades had overseen the futures market.
Based on your incredible work, the agency now oversees a transformed swaps market.
I have worked with some remarkable people in my career -when on Wall Street, at the Treasury Department, and on political campaigns.
BMO Asset Management Inc. Announces That Changes to BMO 2013 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF Are Now in Effect
In addition to the above, BMO AM confirms that the following changes (collectively, the "Changes") are effective as of close of business today:
view more
CFTC Staff Issues Extension to Time-Limited No-Action Letter on the Applicability of Transaction-Level Requirements in Certain Cross-Border Situations view more International Securities Exchange Reports Business Activity for December and Full Year 2013
Average daily volume for full year 2013 for ISE was 2.4 million contracts, making it the second largest U.S. equity options exchange with market share of 16.6%*. Since launching on August 5, 2013, ISE Gemini reported an ADV of 308,000, with steady month-over-month increases in ADV and market share. Total combined volume for both exchanges was 638.8 million contracts for the full year. view more FINRA Releases 2014 Regulatory and Exam Priorities view more 2013 Trading Volume Reaches New All-Time High At CBOE Futures Exchange 2013 Volume
For a fourth consecutive year, exchange-wide trading volume at CFE set a new annual record. view more
FERC, CFTC Sign MOUs on Jurisdiction and Information Sharing view more OCC Announces Cleared Contract Volume Reached 4.2 Billion in 2013 and Record Year for Futures and Stock Loan Activity view more
SPDR(R) University 2014 ETF & Investment Outlook-Let's Get this Show on the Road 2013 ETF TRENDS visit www.statestreetspdrs.com/ to view more SEC Eliminates Ratings On Capital Rules in Nod to MF Global Collapse
The amendments will remove references to credit ratings in the broker-dealer financial responsibility and confirmations of transactions rules. New regulations will also prohibit broker-dealers from using customer securities and cash to finance their own trading, and will force them to maintain more than a dollar of highly liquid assets for each dollar of liabilities. view more
Source: CFTC.gov
January 3, 2014--BMO Asset Management Inc. ("BMO AM") today announced that, effective as of close of business today, BMO 2013 Corporate Bond Target Maturity ETF ("ZXA") is continuing its operations as an exchange traded short-term bond fund as originally provided for in its prospectus.
This enables investors to continue to hold their existing units as well as provides the opportunity for investors to purchase and sell units at their discretion instead of at a set termination date.
The name of ZXA is now BMO Ultra Short-Term Bond ETF ("ZST");
The ticker symbol is ZST;
Source: BMO Financial Group
January 3, 2014--Today, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC or Commission) Divisions of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO), Clearing and Risk, and Market Oversight (collectively Divisions) issued a time-limited no-action letter that extends relief to swap dealers (SDs) registered
with the Commission that are established under the laws of jurisdictions other than the United States (Non-U.S. SDs) from certain transaction-level requirements under the Commodity Exchange Act.
Source: CFTC.gov
January 2, 2014--ISE and ISE Gemini(TM) combined represented 18.3% of equity options market share, excluding dividend trades, for the month of December.
ISE was the second largest equity options exchange for the full year 2013.
Since launch on August 5, 2013, ISE Gemini reported an equity options market share of 2.2%, excluding dividend trades, with an ADV of 308,000 contracts.
Dividend trades made up 2.7% of industry volume in 2013.
The International Securities Exchange (ISE) today reported a combined average daily volume (ADV) of 2.4 million contracts in December 2013 for its two exchanges, ISE and ISE Gemini. This represents 18.3% of U.S. equity options market share.
Source: ISE (International Securities Exchange)
January 2, 2013--The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) today released its 2014 Regulatory and Examination Priorities letter which highlights significant risks and issues that could adversely affect investors and market integrity this year.
Susan Axelrod, Executive Vice President, Regulatory Operations, said, "The purpose of this letter is to provide insight to the industry on specific areas of concern for our regulatory programs in the coming year. We encourage firms to use this guidance along with their own analysis to enhance their programs as we will be examining for strong controls and robust compliance efforts in these areas."
Source: FINRA
Fourth Consecutive Record Year
Over 40 Million Contracts Traded
Several Milestones Achieved During 2013
January 2, 2014-The CBOE Futures Exchange, LLC (CFE(R)) today reported that annual trading for total exchange-wide activity and for futures on the CBOE Volatility Index(R)(VIX(R) Index)
reached new all-time highs in 2013, with several other trading records set during the year.
Source: CBOE
January 2, 2014-- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have signed two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) to address circumstances of overlapping jurisdiction and to share information in connection with market surveillance and investigations into potential market manipulation,
fraud or abuse. The MOUs allow the agencies to promote effective and efficient regulation to protect energy market competitors and consumers.
Source: CFTC.gov
OCC cleared contract volume reached 4.2 billion contracts in 2013, representing a 3 percent increase from 2012 and the second highest year for OCC cleared contract volume to date. OCC also reported a record year for futures and stock loan activity.
January 2, 2014--OCC cleared contract volume reached 4,170,855,768 contracts in 2013, up 3 percent from the 2012 annual volume of 4,042,175,801 contracts.
OCC ended the year with cleared contract volume reaching 325,905,926 contracts in December, up 3 percent from the December 2012 volume of 317,190,974 contracts.
Source: OCC
January 2, 2014--Driven by declines in economic policy uncertainty stabilization in European economic growth and continued
accommodative monetary policy, 2013 delivered double-digit returns for equity markets around the globe. In
fact, global equities are up 21% through the end of November.1
Flows into ETFs highlighted investors' comfort with taking on risk with equity ETFs pulling in close to $207 billion in net flows. The global bond market, on the other hand, fell 2% as interest rates rose.2 Even so, fixed income ETFs added $26 billion of inflows year-to-date. Looking ahead to 2014, investors are left wondering have we come too far too soon.
In aggregate, the ETF market took in an extremely healthy
$196.4 billion globally. As noted, investors added a sizable
amount of capital to equities, but were not sellers of fixed
income. However, the pace of fixed income ETF growth in
2013 was much less than through the first eleven months of
2012. Alternatives added new money as well, while currency
products experienced modest outflows. With commodities
decoupling from other risky assets, investors aggressively
reduced exposure to the tune of $39.0 billion with $37.7
billion of outflows from gold ETFs alone. Regionally, investors
sold ETFs with exposure to emerging markets and blended
economic development, while concentrating their interest in
developed market ETFs.
Source: SSgA
January 2, 2014--The Securities and Exchange Commission said last Friday it would adopt amendments to remove references to credit ratings in calculating the regulatory capital financial firms need to put behind commercial paper, debt and preferred stock, pushing forward one of the major tenets of the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The change appears targeted at mitigating some of the risks uncovered in the collapse of commodity trading firm MF Global in October 2011.
Source: The Street
