Republicans Push for Exemptions to Derivatives Rules

By BEN PROTESS
NYT

Republican lawmakers implored financial regulators on Wednesday to exempt airlines, manufacturers and thousands of other nonfinancial companies from new rules governing derivatives trading, warning that jobs and corporate profits are at risk.

The response from regulators was mixed.

In testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, the Federal Reserve Board governor, Daniel K. Tarullo, left open the possibility that some larger companies might have to post extra capital when trading derivatives.

But Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, reassured the committee that his agency’s rules would “focus only on transactions between financial entities.” Mr. Gensler said the rules should not apply to nonfinancial companies, or so-called end users, that buy derivatives not to speculate but to hedge their costs.

(More here.)