On Jan. 16, FIA submitted a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission commenting on an application submitted by Intercontinental Exchange seeking permission for its clearinghouses in the U.S. and the U.K. to invest customer funds in French and German sovereign debt. The CFTC's current rules do not allow investment in foreign sovereign debt, but ICE argues that French and German sovereign debt is comparable to U.S. government securities in terms of creditworthiness, liquidity and volatility. FIA said it supported the request but encouraged the CFTC to consider certain modifications to the terms and conditions. FIA also asked the CFTC to consider extending the proposed order to all clearinghouses.
