Coalition sends letter to Senate urging support of two bills.
Press Release Summary:
Coalition for Derivatives End-Users sent letter to every U.S. Senator asking that they support two common sense, bipartisan pieces of legislation. S. 3480/H.R. 2682 would exempt nonfinancial end-users — who did not contribute to the financial crisis — from onerous, costly, and unnecessary margin requirements. H.R. 2779 would exempt purely internal, inter-affiliate derivatives trades from clearing and other requirements more appropriately applied to street-facing, speculative swaps.
Original Press Release:
Coalition Sends Letter to Senate on Margin and Inter-Affiliate Trades Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C., — The Coalition for Derivatives End-Users, comprised of hundreds of organizations and companies that use derivatives to manage risks associated with their businesses, today sent a letter to every United States Senator asking that they support two commonsense, bipartisan pieces of legislation. S. 3480/H.R. 2682 would exempt nonfinancial end-users –who did not contribute to the financial crisis –from onerous, costly and unnecessary margin requirements. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and others have recognized that this change is needed to protect end-users from such regulation. And H.R. 2779 would exempt purely internal, inter-affiliate derivatives trades from clearing and other requirements more appropriately applied to street-facing, speculative swaps.
The two bills passed the House overwhelmingly last spring and it is past time for the Senate to act. These bills are too important, and mean too much in terms of capital investments and new jobs, to languish during the lame duck and to expire at the end of the Congress. The Coalition asks the Senate to move these bills into the “must pass” category and to work across party lines and pass them without delay. As the letter, signed by more than 50 companies and organizations, states, “Senate approval of these bills by the end of the current legislative session would help ensure that unnecessary regulations, which could lead to decreased competitiveness and the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, are not imposed on businesses that use derivatives to manage risks.”
The Coalition for Derivatives End-Users represents the views of companies that employ derivatives primarily to manage risks associated with their businesses. More than 270 companies and business associations have joined the Coalition in seeking strong, effective and fair regulation of derivatives markets that brings transparency and mitigates the risk of another systemic collapse while not unduly burdening American businesses and harming job growth.
