Jeff Bandman leaves CFTC for private sector role

Former acting director of clearing and risk led negotiations with EC over CCP equivalence

CFTC has seen a number of staff changes since Christopher Giancarlo was appointed acting chairman

Jeffrey Bandman, the former acting director of the clearing and risk division at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will step down from his current role as a fintech adviser to the agency at the end of this week.  

Bandman, who also served as special counsel to former CFTC chairman Timothy Massad, announced his departure earlier today (June 5) at the Sifma Fintech 2017 conference in New York, where he gave the keynote address.

Wrapping up his remarks, Bandman said: “Now in closing, I have a personal announcement of my own to make – I will soon be leaving the CFTC to return to the private sector and my home in New York.”

Bandman was named acting director of the clearing and risk division in September 2015. He held the position for 17 months and led the CFTC’s efforts to strike a deal with the European Commission over clearing house equivalence in 2016. The agreement averted a potential exodus of European banks from US central counterparties, such as CME Group.

Bandman stepped down from his acting director role on January 27 as part of several staff changes made by Christopher Giancarlo, who was appointed acting chairman of the CFTC on January 20. John Lawton was named acting director of the division, while Bandman was appointed to a new role as a fintech adviser to the CFTC and director of LabCFTC, which was launched earlier this year to foster technology innovation in the derivatives markets.  

In his keynote address, Bandman said LabCFTC had been inundated with enquiries from fintech firms eager to work with the regulator. “The innovators appear excited that a US market regulator is listening and that we have begun this type of initiative,” he said. “They are keen to help us understand the evolving landscape and show us what they are working on.”

Speaking with Risk.net after his speech, Bandman said it would be some time before the technologies developed by the lab were put to practical use at the CFTC – for instance, to analyse trade information reported to swap data repositories.

“I think it’s too early to say whether we’ll be able to use anything just yet,” he said. “On data, specifically, we have significant challenges there. Commodities are a particularly challenging area.”

Bandman declined to comment on who would replace him at LabCFTC. “I don’t know if we are ready to comment on that, but there is awesome support for the lab,” he said.

Prior to joining the CFTC in September 2014, Bandman spent eight years as a consultant specialising in financial market structure. Previously, he was head of partnerships and alliances at LCH.Clearnet’s SwapClear from November 2010 to December 2013.