Kristin Johnson Archives - BR Derivatives Report

This is the next installment of our multi-part series on the February 20 proposal by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the “CFTC”) in respect of proposed CFTC Regulation §1.44 (the “Proposed Rule”).

The previous post provided general information about the nature of the relationship between institutional investors and their investment managers. Indeed, that relationship was one of the primary reasons for the Proposed Rule.

This post considers different views of the relationship between an investment manager and its clients, as background to a discussion of the Proposed Rule.

Some market participants and commenters view the Proposed Rule as creating risk, while others view the Proposed Rule as a necessary nuisance. In short, different market participants have different views of the same situation.

Andrew P. Cross —

Reflections on CFTC Commissioner Johnson’s Speech at the Atlanta Economics Club

On November 13, 2023, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) Commissioner Kristin Johnson delivered a keynote address to the Atlanta Economics Club titled “Policing the (Token) Economy: Introducing Corporate Governance and Market Structure Reforms in Crypto and Environmental Commodities Markets.”

The speech is an excellent resource for any market participant looking for a survey of both the historical context and potential future regulatory and enforcement landscape of the markets for digital assets and environmental commodities.

To the casual observer of the derivatives markets (should such an observer exist), the two asset classes may seem to be unrelated. However, they share several common attributes.