On November 9, NIBA traveled to DC to meet with CFTC Commissioner Bowen and CFTC Chairman Massad. Issues suggested by the NIBA membership were discussed -- HFT definitions and CFTC Regulations 1.35 and 1.22. Steve Petillo, Mike Burke and I prepared a list of talking points and delivered them in advance of our meeting.
In addition to putting issues that are important to our membership in front of the Commission, these sessions with the CFTC serve the purpose of reminding the regulators that the NIBA is a very special trade association. Unlike most industry organizations, we don't have an office or staff in DC. In fact, the work of the association is done entirely by volunteers and the opinions expressed are voiced by working IBs and CTAs -- not paid representatives. When we talk about the effect of a rule or regulation on the IB/CTA community, we are speaking from the experiences we are having in our own offices.
We met with Gregg Doud and Kevin Batteh of the Commodity Markets Council (CMC) on Nov. 9. While CMC members are primarily FCMs and exchanges, we found they have many issues in common with the NIBA. We intend to follow-up with CMC to work on possible joint events, and common interests. Steve, Mike and I also met with Mark Ruddy and Jim Browne, two attorneys who are longtime supporters of the NIBA.
One of the most important things the NIBA does is to continue the tradition of open communication with regulators which we have developed in our 25 years. We definitely got the impression the Commission respects our face-to-face discussions, and will summarize the conversation in the next newsletter.
