Treasury Secretary Lew Urges House to Reject Derivatives Proposals

U.S. Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, urged lawmakers to amend Title VII of Dodd-Frank (the derivatives portion of the legislation). Lew sent letters to Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), committee chairman, and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), ranking member, signaling that the Obama administration intends to continue fighting efforts to amend Dodd-Frank.

Lofchie Comment:  The proposals are generally not deregulatory.  In fact, two of the proposals are intended to correct what the proponents of the legislation admitted were major drafting errors:  (i) the requirement that swap dealers collect margin from all end users and (ii) the provisions discriminating against the swaps activities of U.S. branches of non-U.S. banks.  There are no serious policy justifications for refusing to correct these errors.  After three years of experience trying to implement the legislation, it seems almost impossible even for enthusiasts of the legislation to come up with a list of corrective fixes. 

View letter in full here (links to PDF).
Related News Items: House Financial Services Committee Considers Various Proposed Amendments to Dodd-Frank and JOBS Act; Chairman Hensarling Statement at Full Committee Markup.