CFTC At Full Strength as Commissioners Confirmed

With the US Senate confirmation of four new commissioners for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the regulator has a full strength line up of commissioners for the first time in over a year. It is also making history with the appointment of four women as the new commissioners – the most to ever take on the role in CFTC history.

While the Commission can operate with less than four commissioners and a chair – it has been doing so with chairman Rostin Behnam and commissioner Dawn Stump, who is stepping down at the end of her term in April – significant regulatory change can only come about with a full set of commissioners voting on proposals.

Christy Goldsmith Romero, Kristin Johnson, Summer Kristine Mersinger and Caroline Pham are the new commissioners and have been appointed until April 2023, April 2025, April 2023 and April 2027 respectively.

Romero was last the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Programme (TARP) in the US, a role she has held for almost 12 years. Previously she also worked for six years at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as in private practice and academia.

Johnson is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law. She works on financial markets risk management law and policy with specialisation in the regulation of complex financial products including the origination, distribution, and secondary market trading, clearing, and settlement of securities and derivatives. Prior to her time in academia, she practiced law at a private firm.

Mersinger, meanwhile, has spent the last two years at the CFTC as chief of staff to commissioner Stump. Prior to this she worked in government in the House of Representatives and Senate for her home state congressman and senator.

Pham is moving from the banking sector, she was a managing director at Citi working in market structure and legal counsel roles for over seven years. Prior to Citi, Pham worked at the CFTC as special advisor to the office of commissioner Scott O’Malia, now the chief executive of ISDA.

“The confirmation of these four accomplished professionals means that the CFTC has the most diverse set of Commissioners in the agency’s history,” says Behnam. “The American people will be well served by having a full commission that can openly debate significant policy issues in an ever-changing derivatives and financial landscape.”