Business

The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Thursday defended the agency’s work in developing rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act but said more must be done to regulate the international derivatives market.

The CFTC has come under fire from public interest groups, who say new regulations on swaps and derivatives issued by the agency in accordance with the Wall Street reform law have been weakened under industry pressure.

But Chairman Gary Gensler said the CFTC has completed 90 percent of its rules to bring more oversight to the previously unregulated swaps market, which was a significant contributor to the 2008 economic crisis.

“Swaps market reform is becoming a reality,” Gensler said during remarks at the Sandler O'Neill Global Exchange and Brokerage Conference in New York. “No longer will this market be closed and dark.”

President Obama on Tuesday is expected to announce a set of executive actions aimed at reining in certain patent-holding firms, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council took a bold step in proposing to label at least three nonbank financial firms as “systemically important,” RegWatch reports.

The move was one of two major regulatory actions expected this week, as securities regulators plan to propose new requirements for the money-market industry, according to the Journal.

Connecticut has become the first state to approve mandatory labeling for genetically modified foods, The New York Times reports. The action comes at a pivotal moment in the fight over increased regulations on the use of genetically engineered crops and food, according to RegWatch. 

Hundreds of Wall Street lobbyists are swarming government agencies and gutting the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, their opponents say.

Rep. Alan Grayson sent nearly 10,000 constituent letters to remove the measure he says could give unchecked power to corporations.

American officials and beef producers are reveling in a new safety designation for U.S. cattle and see the change as particularly relevant to ongoing Transpacific trade negotiations.

On Wednesday, the Paris-based World Animal Health Organization (OIE) voted to designated the U.S. has having a “negligible risk” for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also know as mad cow disease. This is an upgrade from “controlled risk” status. 

"This potential merger raises real food safety concerns,” the Connecticut Democrat said.

Industry groups that say the new meat labeling requirements will drive American companies out of business.

A set of regulations contained in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law is having unintended consequences in war-torn central Africa, lawmakers and witnesses said during a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Details of an antitrust lawsuit settlement allowing for Budweiser’s brewer to acquire the maker of Corona were made public Tuesday.

The government's trade inspector is adopting new procedural rules to reduce unnecessary burdens.

The U.S. International Trade Commission, the federal agency that investigates trade policy and directs action to crack down on unfair trade practices, is adopting new regulations to govern the discovery, or evidence-gathering, phase of investigations.

The agency's new rule, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, will limit access to some electronically stored information that would bear an unnecessary cost. 

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