June 24, 2019

Eric J. Pan, Director of CFTC’s Office of International Affairs, to Leave the Agency 

Washington, DC — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced today that Eric J. Pan, Director of CFTC’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), will leave the agency in August.

“The derivatives markets are global markets, which makes it essential that the CFTC recognize the cross-border implications of its policies and successfully advance cross-border cooperation with foreign regulators,” said CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo.  “Eric has been absolutely critical to this effort and achieved great success, working tirelessly to build enduring relationships with our counterparts around the world and to guide CFTC international policy. Eric has done it all. He has been in the middle of many of the pivotal international regulatory debates of the past eight years. I give Eric enormous credit for helping the CFTC achieve its mission to be as effective as possible in regulating these global markets.”

Since 2015, Pan has led the office that advises the Commission on all international regulatory initiatives, provides guidance regarding international issues raised in CFTC matters, represents the agency in international groups (such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB)), standard setting bodies (such as the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)) and bilateral fora, and provides technical assistance to non-U.S. authorities.

Pan has carried out a senior policy role in the agency, advising the Chairman on regulatory priorities and regularly engaging non-U.S. counterparts in policy and technical discussions.  His efforts have made the CFTC a leader in the international regulatory community and in the US-EU regulatory dialogue, playing a prominent and influential role in a range of international initiatives and building international support for effective implementation of standards.

During Pan’s tenure, the agency participated in more international workstreams than ever in its history; signed major cooperative arrangements with authorities around the world; and chaired international workstreams on market fragmentation, efficient resiliency of OTC derivatives reforms, benchmarks, commodity principles, cybersecurity, regulation of financial market infrastructures, data and reporting standards, and implementation monitoring and assessment. 

“I am immensely grateful to Chairman Chris Giancarlo, former Chairman Tim Massad, and all of the Commissioners for entrusting me for the past number of years with responsibility for helping develop the CFTC’s international and cross-border policies and for overseeing the CFTC’s engagement with counterparts around the world,” said Pan. “It has been a great privilege to be part of the CFTC and to work with all of the dedicated and talented people across the agency, especially my superb colleagues in the Office of International Affairs. I also wish to express my deep appreciation to the numerous regulators and policymakers from around the world with whom I have had the great pleasure of knowing all of these years as both counterparts and friends.”

Pan was directly responsible for a number of accomplishments, including:

• Establishing the CFTC’s Brexit Task Force to analyze risks to the U.S. financial system and to propose a series of concrete regulatory actions to mitigate the effects of a hard Brexit, culminating in the CFTC’s Joint Statement with the Bank of England and UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on Continuity of Derivatives Trading and Clearing Post-Brexit.
• Assisting Chairman Giancarlo in articulating the CFTC’s approach to cross-border regulation and supervision, as most prominently set forth in Chairman Giancarlo’s Cross-Border White Paper, and in effecting the approach in CFTC rulemaking and deference announcements with the European Union, Japan, Singapore, and Australia.
• Reaching common approaches with the European Commission and European and Asian regulators on key regulatory and supervisory matters involving central clearinghouses and margin for uncleared swaps.
• Raising awareness among international market regulators about the need to secure information sharing between regulators for enforcement and supervisory purposes in light of new data protection laws, helping lead to the adoption of the pathbreaking IOSCO Administrative Arrangement for the transfer of personal data between European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Supervisory Authorities and non-EEA Financial Supervisory Authorities.
• Concluding the CFTC’s first Fintech Cooperation Memoranda of Understanding with the UK FCA, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
• Leading efforts to improve coordination among international regulators on the implementation of the G-20 OTC derivatives reforms, including founding and running the OTC Derivatives Regulators Group and co-organizing the FSB’s Principals-Level Roundtable on OTC Derivatives Reforms.
• Serving as Chair of IOSCO’s Committee on Derivatives and Co-Chair of the FSB’s Working Group on Unique Transaction Identifier and Unique Product Identifier Governance, a leader in the IOSCO’s Follow-up Group on Market Fragmentation and IOSCO’s Cyber Task Force, and a major contributor to IOSCO’s Task Force on Market Conduct and IOSCO’s Data Protection Sub-Group.
• Representing the CFTC in the IOSCO Board, Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI)-IOSCO Steering Group, U.S.-EU Joint Financial Regulatory Forum, U.S.-EU Financial Services Committee, U.S.-UK Financial Regulatory Working Group, U.S.-India Financial Regulatory Dialogue, and U.S.-China Joint Economic Committee.

Pan began his career as a lawyer in Washington, D.C. before becoming a law professor and director of a corporate governance center in New York City. After the G-20 Leaders’ Summit in Pittsburgh and passage of The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, Pan was asked to join the Office of International Affairs at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to be responsible for overseeing international regulatory policy for the SEC. He then joined the CFTC in 2015 as head of international affairs.

Pan holds a J.D. from the Harvard Law School, a master’s degree in European and International Politics from the University of Edinburgh, and an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

After leaving the agency, Pan will spend a semester as a Senior Research Fellow in the Center for Law and Economic Studies at Columbia Law School in New York City where he will be writing about financial markets and regulation.