HONG KONG - U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim
He called for Asia to follow the regulatory lead of the U.S., but many in Asia argue they are already doing so and maybe to the detriment of businesses in the East. Several jurisdictions in the region have been working to meet the G-20 promise of central clearing and trade repositories by the end of 2012, even though few derivatives markets in individual countries are deep enough or liquid enough to warrant it. Furthermore, fears of a heavily fragmented Asian market have been becoming far more likely because of the plethora of coming CCPs.
During his farewell press conference, Martin Wheatley, departing Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission ceo, noted this was an example in which Asian jurisdictions are already doing too much to regulate the derivatives market. He also called attention to how Hong Kong fared through the global financial crisis as opposed to the U.S. Both the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority released statements noting that derivative controls in the region were already as strong, if not stronger, than those in the U.S.
Jurisdictions in Asia and Europe really have no responsibility to ensure that U.S. firms aren’t put at a disadvantage in their regions because of legislation that originated in the U.S. Geithner implied that these jurisdictions may purposefully keep regulations more lax in order to draw in business, leaving them open to potential risk. In his farewell conference, Wheatley pointed out that no jurisdiction would willfully leave themselves open to these risks after seeing the lessons learned by the U.S. in 2008.
