Senator Roberts: CFTC Roundtables Suggest Solutions to Unknown Problems; Limits Voice of Agriculture

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) today said roundtable discussions on customer collateral protections held by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) pre-judge the MF Global investigation and have limited participation by farmers and ranchers, many of whom are still missing their own funds in the wake of the collapse of MF Global.

“While I appreciate the willingness of the CFTC to discuss solutions to the problem of missing customer funds following the collapse of MF Global, they don’t yet know, with certainty, just what the problems are in the first place,” Roberts said. “The CFTC’s own investigation has not concluded. This roundtable sets up a situation where changes to a decades old system could be proposed before the CFTC knows what really went wrong. Certainly the resources of the CFTC can be better spent elsewhere, like first working to return money to the thousands of innocent victims whose funds are still missing. Perhaps Chairman Gensler should hold one of these roundtables in Kansas, where our farmers and ranchers are hung up in bankruptcy limbo.”

Sen. Roberts has been critical of CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler’s role in developing recommendations for new regulations and rules following the bankruptcy of MF Global. Again, these actions have occurred even though the CFTC’s own investigation is not complete, and despite the Chairman’s own recusal on enforcement matters pertaining to MF Global.

Sen. Roberts is Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry which has jurisdiction over the CFTC.

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