The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced several initiatives to enhance its surveillance of energy futures markets. Among the initiatives announced, the CFTC, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) and London-based ICE Futures Europe (IFE) have agreed to expanded information sharing with respect to the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contracts traded on both IFE and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Under the new agreement, which enhances the existing information-sharing pact between the CFTC and FSA, the CFTC will receive, among other things, daily large trader position information for the IFE WTI contract and will be notified by IFE when traders exceed the position accountability levels established by U.S. designated contract markets, such as NYMEX, for WTI contracts. The CFTC also announced an initiative to increase the transparency of index trading in U.S. energy markets and to review such trading for any negative impact that it may have upon price discovery. In connection with this initiative, the CFTC will immediately employ its “special call” authority to require monthly reports from energy traders of their index trading activities, while working to develop a proposal that would routinely require more detailed reporting from index traders and swap dealers.
http://www.cftc.gov/newsroom/generalpressreleases/2008/pr5503-08.html
