CFTC appoints regional administrators

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has appointed three members of its staff as regional administrators, as part of a plan to improve communication among all CFTC locations.

Steve Obie, regional counsel and associate director in New York, will take on the newly created role for the New York regional office, while Bill Kokontis, chief of markets in the surveillance branch of the division of market oversight in Chicago, and Tom Bloom, branch chief for the division of clearing and intermediary oversight in Kansas City, will act as representatives for the Chicago regional office and Kansas City regional offices respectively. Bloom has a 24-year tenure at the CFTC behind him, while Obie and Kokontis have worked at the CFTC for ten and eight years respectively.

The three will be charged with sustaining communication between the respective offices and CFTC headquarters, serving as the official representative of the CFTC within the federal community in their region, as well as with the exchanges and other members of the regulated community. They will also host international visitors and delegations, and be responsible for developing, implementing and sustaining the continuity-of-operations programme within their region.