US regulators have once again yielded to the power of exchanges by reducing the percentage that their boards need to be independent from a proposed 50% to a more easily achievable 35%.
In the summer of 2006, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued new proposals for exchange boards to be composed of at least 50% public directors in a move which was strongly opposed by Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). As it stood, seven of the 20 CME board members have no direct ties to the futures industry, conveniently totalling the 35% now necessary. "If you look at where we stand today, we already meet their requirements," the CME spokes-person said.
When questioned as to the change in the final guidelines, a spokesperson for the Comm-ission said it was due to accommodating the different structures of US exchanges, many of which a still member owned, and that this change in approach...