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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dr. Jeff who wrote (129415)	10/15/2001 3:37:04 PM
From: Lucretius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

LOL.... my sides hurt

To: Dr. Jeff who wrote (129415)	10/15/2001 3:55:53 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 436258

desperation at high pitch

To: Dr. Jeff who wrote (129415)	10/15/2001 9:07:46 PM
From: Duke-N-Duke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

Greenspan, O'Neill Press For Derivatives Insolvency Law WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation that allows financial institutions and corporations to close out their derivatives contracts during an insolvency. "Congress should not fail to enact netting legislation this year," Greenspan and O'Neill wrote in a letter sent Thursday to House leaders and House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, as well as ranking Democrat John LaFalce of New York. "Further delays would unnecessarily place the financial system at greater risk," they wrote. The regulators were responding to a request from LaFalce and other members of the Financial Services Committee shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks shut down U.S. financial markets and destroyed the Manhattan offices of many Wall Street brokerage houses. The lawmakers wrote in a Sept. 25 letter to O'Neill and Greenspan: "Even in the absence of a major bankruptcy or insolvency, we are concerned that the increased risk of counterparty failure may lead to market instability, reducing the ability of firms to use these markets to manage their risks." The provision, contained within a broader bankruptcy bill, allows institutions to quickly close outstanding derivatives with bankrupt trading partners by netting all the losses and gains of individual contracts into one deal. Greenspan and O'Neill said the legislation, whether part of the bankruptcy bill or enacted alone, would "reduce the impact of the failure of any one institution on the stability of the financial system." Institutional investors have pressed lawmakers in the past five years to update U.S. insolvency laws. But the need for clear settlement and pricing guidelines has never been more apparent, industry officials said. "In these situations, you have highly volatile markets where, as we saw, you couldn't get a price on a certain day," said Robert Pickel, chief executive officer and executive director of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association. The $95 trillion international over-the-counter derivatives market didn't exist the last time the markets were closed for more than two days during World War II. But Greenspan and other top Washington officials say the decade-old industry has become vital to U.S. corporations and financial institutions looking to manage interest rates, currency or other financial risks. Derivatives dealers "need to know that they can do transactions in good times and in bad," Pickel said. "They need to have the certainty that they can close out in an orderly fashion and get the full value of their contract." -By Dawn Kopecki, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637; Dawn.Kopecki@dowjones.com (This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires) Copyright (c) 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved