Washington, D.C.—July 7, 2009—The Futures Industry Association today released the following statement from FIA President John Damgard regarding the statement issued by Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
FIA welcomes the CFTC’s announcement of public hearings on how best to accomplish its mission of ensuring the “fair, open and efficient functioning” of futures markets. FIA has consistently supported efforts by the CFTC to ensure the integrity of the price discovery process, and we want to help Chairman Gensler continue to achieve this goal. FIA would be concerned by any measures to bar legitimate participants from these markets or that would make it less efficient for U.S. corporations to use futures as a tool for managing price risk. FIA hopes the CFTC's hearings will address public concerns about the impact of speculation on futures market prices without causing these markets to become less fair, open and efficient.
