Date: 24 May 2005
 
Speaker:
Sharon Brown-Hruska, Acting Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission of the United States
Chair: Karel Lannoo, CEO and Senior Fellow, CEPS
 
 
On May 24th 2005, CEPS, in cooperation with the US Mission to the EU, organised a roundtable discussion about “Market Competition and Regulatory Cooperation: the new dynamic in US-EU Financial Relations”. Ms. Brown-Hruska, Acting Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States of America, gave a speech on US-EU latest financial market regulation developments. In particular, she noted that both the EU parliament and the US Congress had recently taken fundamental steps towards accommodating more open, competitive, and integrated markets. She added that given the increasingly international scope of commodity markets, regulators should cooperate in fostering the conditions that will allow them to compete freely with one another. In this environment markets will innovate in order to provide the highest possible service to their customers at the lowest possible cost.
 
After presenting the role of the CFTC and comparing derivative market growth in US and Europe, she summarised recent relevant regulatory developments in both regions (Commodity Futures Modernisation Act in the US, Financial Services Action Plan in the EU) and the latest actions CFTC took in order to multiply the links between US and EU markets. For instance, CFTC approved in 2004 the application of Eurex’s affiliate, the U.S. Futures Exchange, to enter the US as a registered exchange, and is now cooperating with German authorities to ensure that the combined market will be monitored appropriately. At the end of her speech, Ms. Brown-Hruska expressed the will of the CFTC to make sure, as far as possible, that the transposition and implementation of relevant European Directives (including FSAP) will assist and not hinder the movement towards free and open markets.
 
During the discussion that followed her speech, Ms. Brown-Hruska further explained that CFTC is extremely encouraging to EU actors willing to enter US markets. They try to accommodate those companies’ needs and to help them finding the approach best adapted to their business model. She underlined the importance, for the US as well as for Europe, of encouraging the creation of new financial products and the cross-pollination of those new developments over the Atlantic.
 
Read the full text of Commissioner Brown-Hruska’s speech.