On this week’s podcast Colin Lambert casts his eye over the week’s news, before he is joined by Matthew Kulkin, partner at US law firm Steptoe, and former director of the CFTC’s Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight, to discuss all matters regulatory.

Lambert is pleased to find out that one of his observations – that there is a rush of rule-making at CFTC – is actually accurate, thanks to the natural cycle with US regulatory circles, as Kulkin takes him through last week’s important rule proposals from CFTC around swaps data reporting and dissemination. Stressing that the proposed rules are just that – proposed – Kulkin and Lambert discuss the balancing act required to ensure that trades are reported soon enough for regulators to be able to track market activity accurately, but with enough of a delay to protect market participants seeking to hedge large risks.

The conversation then touches on how the world is preparing for the change to risk-free rates for benchmark purposes – and Lambert is warned that precedent dictates that his prediction that the deadline will be met is not quite the surefire thing he believes – before moving into electronic trading territory with an update on RegAT. For those of you out there (Lambert included) who thought this was, as CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz stated in 2017 “D.E.A.D”, Kulkin has a surprise, because that is not actually the case.

The podcast closes out with a look at regulators’ attempts to bring some rules to cryptocurrency markets – Kulkin follows a long tradition on the podcast by raising an eyebrow at one of Lambert’s predictions – following Financial Stability Board chairman Randal Quarles’ waring last week that there was a danger of regulators falling behind the curve for this growing asset class.

Download from your podcast store or from the Profit & Loss website and listen in now and to read Steptoe’s forecast of the CFTC’s 2020 agenda, click here.