Financial Stability Oversight Council Proposes Rules Regarding Designation of Financial Market Utilities as Systemically Important

Co-authored by Kevin M. Foley and Joshua A. Penner

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) has released proposed rules regarding the criteria under which it will designate certain financial market utilities (FMUs) as "systemically important."

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act defines an FMU generally as any person that manages or operates a multilateral system for the purposes of transferring, clearing or settling payments, securities, or other financial transactions among financial institutions or between a financial institution and that person.

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CPSS and IOSCO Publish Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures

Co-authored by Vanessa L. Colman

The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have released for public comment a report proposing a set of 24 new "principles" intended to ensure the global stability of "financial markets infrastructures" that facilitate the recording, clearing and settlement of financial transactions (including all systemically important payment systems, central securities depositories, securities settlement systems, central counterparties and trade repositories) in the event of market stress and financial crises. CPSS-IOSCO's goal in issuing the report is to bring consistency to the oversight and regulation of financial market infrastructures. The principles are designed to harmonize and strengthen current risk management standards, in particular: (1) the financial resources and risk management procedures a financial markets intermediary uses to cope with the default of participants; (2) the mitigation of operational risk; and (3) the links and other interdependencies between financial markets intermediaries through which operational and financial risks can spread. The report also introduces new principles with respect to segregation and portability, tiered participation and general business risk. The CPSS-IOSCO cover letter requests comment on a number of issues with respect to the proposed principles.

Comments on the new principles are due by July 29.

The report is available here.
The cover letter is available here.

CFTC-SEC Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues to Meet

Co-authored by Joshua A. Penner

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission have announced that the first meeting of the Joint CFTC-SEC Advisory Committee on Emerging Regulatory Issues will be held on Monday, May 24.

The Joint Committee will discuss the preliminary findings of the staffs of the CFTC and SEC related to the unusual market events of May 6.

The meeting will be streamed live on the Internet at www.sec.gov.
The CFTC press release regarding the meeting can be found here.