Commodity End-User Relief Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the cosponsors of this
amendment. I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Wisconsin for
introducing the amendment and the cosponsors--Ms. Moore, Mr. Huizenga,
Mr. Maloney--for joining me in efforts to help bring transparency to
the global swap markets.
While I may not agree with every position in the Dodd-Frank law,
today, I believe we are working towards its bipartisan goal of giving
regulators the tools they need to improve systemic risk mitigation in
global financial markets.
I think everyone agrees that the lack of transparency into the over-
the-counter derivatives market escalated the financial crisis of 2008.
In order to provide market transparency, the Dodd-Frank law requires
posttrade reporting to swap data repositories, or SDRs, so that
regulators and market participants have access to real-time market data
that will help identify systemic risk in the financial system.
So far, we have made great strides in reaching this goal, but
unfortunately, a provision in the law threatens to undermine our
progress unless we fix it.
Currently, Dodd-Frank includes a provision requiring a foreign
regulator to indemnify a U.S.-based SDR for any expenses arising from
litigation relating to a request for market data. Although well
intentioned, the effect has been a reluctance of foreign regulators to
comply, which threatens to fragment global data on swap markets and
making it harder for regulators to see a complete picture of the
marketplace.
Without effective coordination between international regulators and
SDRs, monitoring and mitigating global systemic risk is severely
limited. H.R. 2289 includes a bipartisan provision that removes the
indemnification provisions in Dodd-Frank.
This provision received broad bipartisan support when it came to the
floor as a stand-alone last year, passing the House by a vote of 420-2.
Additionally, both the CFTC and the SEC support the fix.
This amendment makes a small technical change to make clear that only
swap data can be shared with foreign regulators. It will ensure that
regulators will have access to a global set of swap market data, which
is essential to maintaining the highest degree of market transparency
and systemic risk mitigation.
Again, I thank the gentlewoman for introducing the amendment.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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