CFTC = Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

From a lengthy Bloomberg article worth reading, here’s some excerpts:

His campaign to drag the $605 trillion over-the-counter derivatives market out of the shadows is designed to lower spreads between buyers and sellers and make it easier for new competitors to enter the market[.]

First, try to wrap your head about $605T. There are many multi-hundred-of-trillion dollars of unregulated “derivatives” floating around on balance sheet, off balance sheet, etc.

Even if you don’t understand what that is – you should at least be curious about what could happen if something goes wrong. [Note: There are people complaining about our federal debt ceiling just being raised to ~$14.6T.]

The Curious Case of Benjamins Missing – Where did the trillions go?

Gensler “is going to raise real concerns” for financial firms, said Samuel Hayes, a professor emeritus of investment banking at Harvard Business School in Boston. “Derivatives are absolutely central to what is Wall Street in the 21st century. Nobody wants the regulations to affect them.”

Gensler’s goal is to move OTC derivatives to transparent trading systems that regulators can monitor.

He’s had more success on the issue of transparency.

“The more transparent a marketplace is, the more competitive it is,” he said[.]