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Opening Remarks, Conference on Commodity Markets
Chairman Gary Gensler
August 25, 2011--Good morning and welcome to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It’s great to see economists from so many fine universities across the globe gathered here along with an impressive group of government experts. Thank you for graciously sharing your time to discuss the issues affecting commodity markets. Your insights should be helpful to our surveillance and enforcement efforts at this agency.
I want to thank Andrei Kirilenko and the Office of the Chief Economist for putting this conference together and for their contributions to this agency. Before you get started, I’m going to give you an update about where we stand today with the CFTC’s response to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
2008 Crisis
Three years ago, our country’s largest financial institutions were trading swaps in the shadows and this marketplace contributed to and helped accelerate the financial system’s downward spiral. Though the crisis had many causes, it is clear that the swaps market played a central role. Swaps added leverage to the financial system – more risk was backed by less capital. There was a belief that certain financial institutions were not only too big to fail but too interconnected to fail. But when AIG, Lehman and others collapsed, it was the taxpayers who had to pick up the bill to prevent the economy from diving further into a depression. And it wasn’t just the financial system that failed. The regulatory system that was put in place to protect the public failed too.
The Dodd-Frank Act
Congress and the President came together and responded to this crisis by passing a historic law, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The law includes many important provisions, but two overarching goals of reform include: bringing transparency to the swaps market and lowering the risks of this market to the overall economy. Both of these reforms protect taxpayers from again bearing the brunt of a crisis and lower costs for businesses and their customers.
read more
Source: CFTC.gov
Rydex files with the SEXC
August 25, 2011--Rydex has filed a Amedment No. 2 to Form FORM S-1 registration statenment with the SEC for the CurrencyShares® Chinese Renminbi Trust.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
BlackRock files with the SEC
August 25, 2011--BlackRock has filed an appliction for exemptive relief with the SEC.
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
CFTC might vote on position limits next month, Gensler says
August 25, 2011--The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission may vote as early as Sept. 22 to complete Dodd-Frank Act limits on speculative trading in commodities such as oil, natural gas and wheat, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said.
The so-called position-limits rule and regulations governing derivatives clearinghouses may be voted on by commissioners next month, Gensler told reporters today during a CFTC economic research conference in Washington. The agency has a rulemaking meeting scheduled for Sept. 22.
“I don’t know if it will be that meeting or early October,” Gensler said. “I feel very good about the progress staff has made.”
READ MORE
Source: Bloomberg
BNY Mellon Repeats as Safest Bank in the U.S. in Global Finance Magazine Survey
BNY Mellon Repeats as Safest Bank in the U.S. in Global Finance Magazine Survey
August 25, 2011--BNY Mellon, the global leader in investment management and investment services, ranks as the safest U.S.-based bank for the third consecutive year in Global Finance magazine's annual "World's 50 Safest Banks" ranking.
The "World's 50 Safest Banks" 2011 rankings were based on an evaluation of long-term credit ratings — from Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch — and total assets of the 500 largest banks worldwide. Now in its 20th year, Global Finance's annual ranking of "World's 50 Safest Banks" is a recognized and trusted standard of creditworthiness for the global financial community. In the 2011 rankings, BNY Mellon maintained its standing as the safest bank in the U.S., and moved up six places in the global ranking.
"The strength of our balance sheet and our capital management strategy continues to distinguish BNY Mellon in the marketplace. It also sustains our strategic focus on developing innovative new solutions that help our clients succeed," said Robert P. Kelly, chairman and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon.
"More than ever, creditworthiness is being viewed as a key attribute for banks," said Joseph D. Giarraputo, the magazine's publisher. "Investors and customers alike are increasingly drawn to banks with proven strength and stability — underscoring the importance of our survey and reflecting positively on banks with superior rankings."
BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 36 countries and serving more than 100 markets. BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, offering superior investment management and investment services through a worldwide client-focused team. It has $26.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration and $1.3 trillion in assets under management, services $11.8 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.7 trillion per day. BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE: BK). Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com and through Twitter @bnymellon.
Source: BNY Mellon
Van Eck files with the SEC
August 24, 2011--Van Eck has filed a post-effective amendment, registration statement with the SEC for the
European Currency High Yield Bond ETF (HYE).
view filing
Source: SEC.gov
Chile: Selected Issues
August 24, 2011--A. Introduction
1. Chile’s exchange rate has appreciated in recent years alongside the copper price boom. The appreciation has raised concerns about the competitiveness of Chile’s nonmineral
exports. This paper uses two approaches to assess competitiveness. First, the IMF’s Consultative Group on Exchange Rate Issues (CGER) methodologies are applied to assess the alignment of the overall real exchange rate with economic fundamentals.
Second, an analysis of exchange rates and competitiveness is done at a sectoral level. The main finding
is that Chile’s real exchange rate is broadly in line with fundamentals. The sectoral analysis suggests that competitive pressures have been more pronounced in the industrial sector,
pointing to the need to increase productivity and diversify into higher-value added products in this sector to maintain competitiveness.
2. The chapter is organized as follows: Section II discusses the stylized facts on Chile’s trade performance; Section III assesses the exchange rate level using the IMF’s CGER methodology; Section IV studies external competitiveness by sector; and finally, Section V concludes. An appendix contains more details on methodology and data description.
B. Stylized Facts
3. Chile’s exports have been increasingly dominated by mining, in particular copper exports, since 2003 (Figure 1). The share of copper exports in Chile’s total exports increased from 36 percent in 2003 to 57 percent in 2010, while the share of industrial and agricultural exports2 declined from 43 and 10 percent in 2003 to 27 and 6 percent in 2010, respectively. Copper exports increased from US$7.8 billion in 2003 to US$40.3 billion in 2010. The ratio of copper exports to nominal GDP also increased from 11 to 20 percent.
view the IMF report-Chile: Selected Issues
Source: IMF
Global X Funds Now On Dorsey Wright Platform
August 24, 2011--Global X Funds, the New York based provider of exchange traded funds, today announced the partnership with Dorsey Wright & Associates' (DWA), an independent registered investment advisory firm. The ETF provider is pairing up with DWA to market the Global Opportunities portfolio, a global portfolio based off of relative strength.
Dorsey Wright's relative strength methodology has long been a vehicle for advisors utilizing ETFs. Global X Funds passively managed ETFs, broken down into Developed Markets, Emerging Markets, Commodity Producers, Income Producers and Special Opportunities fund suites, will be selectively available in the portfolio.
“Dorsey Wright’s expertise in relative strength and technical analysis provides an additional resource to our investors’ portfolio allocation tactics,” said Bruno del Ama, chief executive officer of Global X Funds.
"We are rarely interested in timing precise tops and bottoms in a market, but are very interested in finding the strongest of performance trends within an asset class, and staying with them. We feel our relative strength-based approach is as adept a means for identifying such trends as exists today, and when applied in a disciplined fashion can help investors get the most out of a dynamic fund lineup such as Global X's,” said Tom Dorsey, President Dorsey, Wright & Associates.
Source: Global X
Chavez formalizes nationalization of gold industry
August 24, 2011--Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a decree on Tuesday formalizing the nationalization of his country's gold mining industry, a move aimed at giving the government total control over gold produced in the South American country.
Speaking during a televised speech, Chavez also announced the repatriation of $11 billion in Venezuelan gold reserves currently held in US and European banks would begin within several weeks. Chavez did not offer details how the new decree differs from a 1965 law that nationalized gold mining. In 1977, the government granted itself exclusive rights to extract gold. But he suggested it would give authorities increased powers to evict wildcat miners from illegal mines.
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Source: Todays Zaman
BNY Mellon Clearing Joins CME Group for OTC Clearing
August 23, 2011--BNY Mellon Clearing, LLC announced today that it has joined CME Group as a clearing member firm in order to clear over-the-counter interest rate swaps on behalf of its institutional clients.
As a result of recent regulatory changes, it is expected that a large percentage of derivatives transactions will be cleared through central clearinghouses. The Dodd-Frank Act passed in the United States last year mandated clearing of "standardized" OTC derivatives.
"The standardization of OTC derivatives and migration to central clearing should reduce counterparty credit risk and allow better regulatory oversight," said Sanjay Kannambadi, CEO of BNY Mellon Clearing. "By joining CME Group as a clearing member for OTC interest rate derivatives, we have partnered with one of the leading and most respected derivatives clearinghouses and expanded the options available to our clients."
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Source: BNY Mellon
