Washington, D.C.—Feb. 3, 2009—FIA President John Damgard testified before the House Agriculture Committee on Feb. 3 regarding the discussion draft of the Derivatives Markets Transparency and Accountability Act of 2009. Damgard expressed support for those provisions strengthening the CFTC’s market surveillance capabilities, deterring price manipulation, and encouraging competition. Damgard warned, however, that many of the bill’s provisions would drain market liquidity, make hedging more costly, curb innovation and discourage trading in the U.S. He expressed especially strong opposition to the provisions that would greatly expand the scope of speculative position limits, mandate clearing of all OTC transactions, and ban naked credit default swaps.
