The hearing was called following recent interest from US senators in the ongoing battle between New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and ICE Futures for volume in WTI crude oil and natural gas. While ICE Futures is owned by Atlanta's Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), it is based in London and subject to regulation by the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA). US-domiciled traders can transact on ICE Futures under CFTC no-action letter status, whereby that regulator accepts the oversight of an overseas equivalent, in this case FSA.
More recently, though, legislators have asked CFTC to increase its oversight of ICE Futures as they believe that there is the possibility of market manipulation in commodities whose prices are vital to the US economy. Senators Carl Levin and Norm Coleman, for instance, recently issued a report demanding greater reporting requirements for traders on overseas exchanges (see FO Week Vol 11 No 26).
Levin said, "More...