Release: 4856-03
For Release: October 23, 2003 Photograph of Participants

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's International Affairs Office Presents International Symposium and Training Program on Derivative Products, Markets, and Financial Intermediaries

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) Office of International Affairs, in conjunction with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, hosted the 13^th annual meeting of international regulatory and market authorities to discuss issues relevant to the international derivatives markets. The meetings -- held from October 20-24 -- at the Reserve Bank's training facilities, drew over 63 participants and 38 presenters and panelists from 26 countries, including Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada (Quebec and Ontario), China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom. The group represents 47 different markets and regulators, and also includes participants from the European Central Bank and the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank.

The meetings this week will be followed on October 27 by a separate intensive, technical session to be held at the CFTC's Chicago regional office, covering the CFTC's regulatory programs.

Commenting on the program, CFTC Chairman James E. Newsome said:

"We welcome this opportunity to host representatives from regulatory and market authorities from a broad range of countries to share our regulatory experience. All of us face similar issues resulting from changes in the structure of the global marketplace, and no single regulatory authority has all the answers. As such, international cooperation among regulators and market authorities is vital to effective oversight of our markets, and these meetings help to promote more effective cooperation."

Senior CFTC staff, executives from U.S. exchanges and the National Futures Association, and senior representatives from several foreign exchanges and regulatory agencies engaged in discussions and gave presentations during the program that addressed a wide variety of regulatory topics. Several current topics were addressed from the regulators' perspective, and there also was a presentation from the industry's perspective. Topics at the session included:

• Clearing Organization Ownership and Governance;
• Clearing and Credit Risk Management for Over-the-Counter Credit Risk;
• Recognizing Markets – A Case Study;
• Designing Contracts to Avoid Manipulation;
• Surveillance of Electronic Markets;
• Supervision and Regulation in a World without Boundaries;
• Designing Risk-based Audits; and
• Ethics and Market Confidence.

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