WASHINGTON — When Peter Malyshev was a graduate student with a part-time job at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2001, he’d walk into the red-brick building near Washington’s Dupont Circle and find the lobby almost deserted.
Now an attorney for Winston & Strawn who represents clients including Goldman Sachs, Malyshev said he’s more likely these days to encounter a small regiment lining up for visitor badges.
The CFTC is no longer the “sleepy little agency” that its then-chairwoman, Mary Schapiro, branded it in the 1990s. With power from Congress to oversee the previously unregulated $615 trillion market for over-the-counter derivatives, it has become one of the hottest lobbying spots in town.
“These companies investing in these markets have to look at the CFTC because now they have jurisdiction,” said Malyshev, 44. The firms want to “make sure the rules are right.”
Hedge funds have lobbied the CFTC to be excluded from categories that entail increased scrutiny and higher capital requirements under the recently passed Dodd-Frank regulatory law.
Airlines and manufacturers who use derivatives to hedge their commodity costs want an exemption from having to post cash margin on their trades.
