ISDA PRESS STATEMENT ON SENATE HEARINGS ON S.2697

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) welcomed today's joint hearings on S. 2697, the "Commodity Exchange Act Modernization Act of 2000", by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development.

"A principal purpose of this legislation is to remove the Commodity Exchange Act as a source of legal uncertainty for OTC derivatives transactions and this has been an important legislative priority of ISDA for many years", said Rick Grove, ISDA's Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director. "We were pleased with the decision of the principals of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets to appear personally at today's hearing and we hope that the Senate Agriculture Committee will act swiftly to approve legislation to modernize the Commodity Exchange Act this month", added Mr. Grove.

S. 2697 was introduced jointly by Senator Richard Lugar, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Senator Phil Gramm, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development, and Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois. Mr. Grove noted that the witnesses at today's hearing advocated changes to some of the provisions of S. 2697 and added that "ISDA will continue to work actively with Congress, the President's Working Group and all other interested parties to achieve agreement on legal certainty issues as the legislative process moves forward".

"We applaud the continuing leadership of Senators Lugar and Gramm and we hope that their leadership, with the commitment of Senator Fitzgerald, others in Congress and the President's Working Group, will facilitate the forging of the consensus necessary to enable Congress to complete action this year on legislation to provide legal certainty under the Commodity Exchange Act for OTC derivatives and regulatory relief for the futures exchanges", said Mr. Grove.

ISDA is an international organization and its more than 470 members include the world's leading dealers in OTC derivatives transactions. ISDA's dealer-members are among the principal customers of the regulated futures exchanges. In addition, ISDA's members include many of the businesses, financial institutions, governmental entities and other end-users that rely on OTC derivatives to manage their financial and commodity market risks with a degree of efficiency and effectiveness that would not otherwise be possible. Information about ISDA and its activities is available on the Association's web site, www.isda.org.