The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed J. Christopher Giancarlo as CFTC Chair and Brian Quintenz and Rostin Behnam as CFTC Commissioners (see previous coverage). The Commission now is composed of two Republicans (Mr. Giancarlo and Mr. Quintenz) and two Democrats (Sharon Bowen and Mr. Behnam). Ms. Bowen has announced her intention to step down. Republican nominee Dawn DeBerry Stump was approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee but has not yet received a full Senate vote.
Commentary / Bob Zwirb
One of the issues that the new Commission undoubtedly will have to grapple with is what to do with "package transactions"; i.e., groups of swap trades executed on a SEF as one economic transaction. Whatever solution the CFTC may come up with to deal with that issue, perhaps it should refrain from following the example that Congress set here to deal with this package of nominees, which was - according to the Wall Street Journal - to decline to confirm a third commissioner nominee, Dawn Stump, a Republican, until her nomination could be paired with the nomination of a Democrat to replace current Commissioner Sharon Bowen.
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