Andrew Busch will report directly to acting chair J Christopher Giancarlo
The top US derivatives regulator is taking steps to beef up its insight into the industry – and spread the word about the agency’s work.
Andrew Busch will join the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on April 10 as the agency’s first chief market intelligence officer (CMIO), reporting directly to acting chair J Christopher Giancarlo.
Giancarlo – President Donald Trump’s nominee to take over at the agency on a full-time basis – last month announced the creation of the market intelligence unit. It is intended to understand, analyze and communicate current and emerging derivatives market dynamics, developments and trends, such as the impact of new technologies and trading methodologies.
It will be created by separating the surveillance branch from the CFTC’s division of market oversight and reassigning its work to the division of enforcement. As part of the enforcement division, the surveillance branch will still continue its work monitoring markets for suspected fraud and manipulation, officials state in a related filing. The branch will have the same authority and responsibility as at present to identify and recommend for prosecution violations of law and regulation such as spoofing, manipulation and fraud.
Giancarlo told attendees at the International Futures Industry Conference in March that separating the surveillance market intelligence units would ‘sharpen our surveillance capability while increasing our knowledge of evolving market structures and practices to inform sound policymaking at the commission and promote efficient and sound markets.’
Giancarlo also told delegates at the event that the CMIO will engage with industry participants, other regulators and the new market intelligence unit to ‘help activate our agency’s latent capability for market intelligence, giving us better insight into the needs of participants in the futures and swaps we oversee.’
The CMIO will also be tasked with helping the public understand risk transfer markets and why they are important to prosperity, Giancarlo said last month. ‘Too many people, including investors, don’t know what we do or why we do it – both from a marketplace and regulatory perspective. We will not be able to enact the policy reforms we need unless the public has a better understanding of why they are vital to economic growth,’ he added.
Busch will join the agency from Bering Productions (BPI), which the CFTC says is a boutique economic research company Busch founded and where he is CEO. Before BPI, Busch was the global currency and public policy strategist at the Bank of Montreal from 2009 to 2013. He also served as the bank’s global foreign exchange strategist and was an outside advisor to the White House, US Department of the Treasury and Congress on the financial markets from 2005 to 2009, according to the CFTC.
‘I greatly appreciate the honor that acting chairman Giancarlo and the commission have given me to serve its mission to provide service to the financial community and country,’ Busch says in a statement. ‘Congress has entrusted the commission with key responsibilities for understanding and communicating information and intelligence on current market dynamics, and I intend to assist the commission with this key role.’
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
