FIA

The Futures Industry Association today announced the election of board directors at its annual meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. Seventeen directors were elected in total at this meeting, including eight regular member directors for two-year terms; four regular member directors for one-year terms; and five associate member directors for a two-year terms. Following the election, the new board elected the association's officers and public directors.

The following directors were elected as officers by the new board:

The Futures Industry Association released two documents today to address issues related to the bankruptcy of MF Global. One of the documents contains initial recommendations for enhancing the protection of customer funds; the other is designed to provide customers with essential information about the rules and regulations relating to customer fund protections.

The Futures Industry Association issued a statement today from FIA president John Damgard welcoming the International Monetary Fund’s findings in its World Economic Outlook that financial speculators are not to blame for volatility in the commodity markets.

The recently published FIA-ISDA cleared derivatives execution agreement is the industry’s first attempt to regulate the relationship between parties entering trades for central clearing. Documentation Risk Solutions’ managing director Michael Beaton explains the structure of this new legal agreement.

The Futures Industry Association and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) today announced the publication of the FIA-ISDA Cleared Derivatives Execution Agreement as a template that can be used by participants in the cleared swaps markets in negotiating execution-related agreements with counterparties to over-the-counter derivatives that are intended to be cleared.

Eleven financial trade associations including the FIA have urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission to use their discretion in setting the effective dates for the new derivatives regulations mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. In a letter submitted to the two agencies on Dec. 7, the associations said participants in derivatives markets need sufficient time to do the work necessary to comply with the new clearing, execution and reporting requirements.

The futures industry is working on an ownership and control reporting system that will serve as a practical and cost-effective alternative to the OCR system proposed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Futures Industry Association said in comments submitted to the agency on Oct. 7.