AFP warns against hasty derivatives regulation

Bill Miller, chairman of the Association of Financial Professionals’ (AFP) End-Users of Derivatives Council (EUDC), is calling for restraint when considering amending US derivatives regulation following the collapse of Enron.

The EUDC, the division of the AFP that deals with all derivatives issues for its 14,000 members in the US and Canada, told Risknews he believes regulators should resist the impulse to legislate new derivatives legislation without a thorough consultation process.

“The creation of the CFMA [Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000] involved a lot of input from a lot of different groups,” said Miller. “Unravelling the CFMA could provide greater risks than taking a measured approach.” Miller said the regulators' response to date has been encouraging: “We have a pretty robust financial system and it doesn’t warrant change at this time.”

But Miller does believe some tweaking is necessary. The EUDC supports an immediate revision of the bankruptcy code regarding the netting of outstanding derivatives contracts in the event of bankruptcy by a counterparty.

Meanwhile, the EUDC is in the process of surveying its members to find out the impact that FAS133 has had on the use of derivatives among the 5,000 companies represented by its members.