Dodd-Frank: Gray Areas In Commodities Futures Trading?

 There are still some very gray areas about what the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Bill requires with reference to Commodities Futures Trading. According to the following article, the Commissioners voted to immediately begin requirements for daily reporting of swaps about a certain threshold by exchanges and market participants to determine position limits. It may still be some time before those limits can be put in place.
     . . . June


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Dodd-Frank: What's An Energy Trader to Do?
Industry Verticals:  Jill Feblowitz 01.11.2010 kl 17:40 | IDC Energy Industry Insights Community


Ever since the signing of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in July, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been working on building out the detailed regulations mandated by the bill. Recently, there have been two interesting developments in putting together regulations that energy companies will want to take note of in order to determine what to do next.

According to a Reuters article by Roberta Rampton and Christopher Doering on October 19, since this is the first time that the CFTC will be regulating the over the counter derivatives market, final regulations on position limits might be delayed until the CFTC has enough information to inform what those position limits may be; the initial deadline was January 2011.

To get that information, the Commissioners voted to immediately begin requirements for daily reporting of swaps about a certain threshold by exchanges and market participants. It is fairly clear that this reporting will not apply to commercial end users that want to hedge, but it may not rule out energy companies that are doing large volumes of swaps. So at this point, final position limits regulation may be delayed for a while.

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Could All Money Transfers Face Anti-terrorism Scrutiny?

The Obama administration wants to require U.S. banks to report all electronic money transfers into and out of the country.It gets to the point where maybe it's all too much. Does it mean that if you're making a money transfer to a family member they will scrutinize it? Is it really necessary to put everyone under the microscope in order to possibly ferret out a few bad guys? Won't they just find a way around the rules? They always do
   . .. . .  June

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Money transfers could face anti-terrorism scrutiny:

The Obama administration wants to require U.S. banks to report all electronic money transfers into and out of the country, a dramatic expansion in efforts to counter terrorist financing and money laundering.

Officials say the information would help them spot the sort of transfers that helped finance the al-Qaeda hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They say the expanded financial data would allow anti-terrorist agencies to better understand normal money-flow patterns so they can spot abnormal activity.

Financial institutions are now required to report to the Treasury Department transactions in excess of $10,000 and others they deem suspicious. The new rule would require banks to disclose even the smallest transfers.

Treasury officials plan to post the proposed regulation on their Web site Monday and in the Federal Register this week. The public could comment before a final rule is published and the plan takes effect, which officials say will probably not be until 2012.

The proposal is a long-delayed response to the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which specified reforms to better organize the intelligence community and to avoid a repeat of the 20S01 attacks. The law required that the Treasury secretary issue regulations requiring financial institutions to report cross-border transfers if deemed necessary to combat terrorist financing.

"By establishing a centralized database, this regulatory plan will greatly assist law enforcement in detecting and ferreting out transnational organized crime, multinational drug cartels, terrorist financing and international tax evasion," said James H. Freis Jr., director of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).


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Are Insurers Looking For Loopholes in Health Care Reform?

 Isn't it typical that the big insurers that Health Care Reform is trying to protect the public from are trying to figure out ways to get around the bill? According to the following article, it appears that a number of major insurance companies are planning to stop offering 'children-only' plans. Does this mean they would bypass the clause to protect kids under 19 with pre-existing conditions?
   . . . June


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Health care reform starts, insurers look for loopholes
CBS 21 News - Breaking news, sports and weather for the Harrisburg Pennsylvania area:


A wave of changes will start Thursday as the new health care reform takes effect.

Yet, disturbing information is coming out about a number of major insurance companies planning to stop offering 'children-only' plans. A new 'Wall Street Journal' article details a number of big insurers attempting to create a loophole.

The article claims five top insurance companies will no longer sell child-only policies, but children already enrolled in a child-only plan will not be dropped.

When Pres. Obama signed health care reform into law six months ago, one of the new changes was to protect kids under 19 with pre-existing conditions. Under the law, insurers can no longer deny those children insurance. Adults with pre-existing conditions, though, have to wait until 2014.

"We're going to have to make sure the dialogue with the insurance companies is one that they know they have a responsibility for sick kids," said state Sen. Mike Stack (D-Philadelphia).

Stack is the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. He said that if the federal plan is unable to protect children, it's distressing, so keeping a dialogue with insurers is vital.

"We've been able to get that in the past and we'll be firm on this. But I'm confident we'll have that in the future," said Stack.




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