Pre-registration is now closed.  Onsite registration is available.

Date: Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Location: K&L Gates LLP, 1601 K Street NW, Washington, DC 20006
Directions: Metro, Farragut North (Red) and Farragut West (Orange and Blue)

Cost*:
$25 - WHF Associate Members
$35 - WHF Government/Public Sector Members
$40 - WHF Private Sector Members
$50 - non-members

Our distinguished speaker: Gary Gensler, Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Program Description: Chairman Gensler will discuss issues that are facing the CFTC and the industry as well as regulatory reform.  BusinessWeek published an article about Chairman Gensler in their February 11, 2010 edition titled: "A Goldman Guy Turns on the Street - CFTC chief Gary Gensler's fight for tough rules on derivatives is making him exceedingly unloved." Click here to read the article (open in a new window).  Excerpts from the article:

Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and an ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) partner, has shattered any illusions that he will protect Wall Street from tough new derivative regulations. Over a private lunch at the Waldorf Astoria on Jan. 6, Gensler, 52, told executives from Credit Suisse (CS), Deutsche Bank (DB), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), and Goldman that while he once shared their goals—to boost revenues and their own bonuses—his responsibility now was to taxpayers, according to people familiar with the meeting. When one banker asked Gensler what he saw as the biggest obstacle to reform, he gestured toward his hosts and replied: "You."

Of all the regulators in the Administration, Gensler may be the most troubling to the Street. He wants to drag derivative trading out of the shadows and expose to scrutiny the lush margins traders make on these complex securities.

A House bill passed in December spells out new regulations for trading derivatives. Gensler thinks the bill should have been a lot tougher and is lobbying the Senate hard to come up with a more rigorous bill of its own. He even wants to go further than President Barack Obama in clamping down on current practices, because, says Gensler, the banks' "interests are not necessarily aligned with the American public's interests."

Gensler's biggest beef these days is with the loopholes embedded in derivative legislation.

Gensler argues that even these innocent-seeming exemptions will give openings to hedge funds and other financial firms that take big risks on derivatives to juice profits.As a result, he has now raised hackles at many corporations beyond Wall Street—they see the clearinghouses as burdensome and costly.

Speaker Bio: Gary Gensler was sworn in as the Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on May 26, 2009. Chairman Gensler previously served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury as Under Secretary of Domestic Finance (1999-2001) and as Assistant Secretary of Financial Markets (1997-1999). He subsequently served as a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, Senator Paul Sarbanes, on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reforming corporate responsibility, accounting and securities laws. Chairman Genlser was the featured speaker at a WHF annual meeting while with the Clinton Treasury Department.

As Under Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman Gensler was the principal advisor to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and later to Secretary Lawrence Summers on all aspects of domestic finance. In recognition of his service, he was awarded Treasury’s highest honor, the Alexander Hamilton Award.  Prior to joining Treasury, Chairman Gensler worked for 18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was selected as a partner; in his last role he was Co-head of Finance.

*The early registration deadline is 5:00pm, Friday, February 26, 2010. Payment made after the early registration deadline and on-site registrations will be charged an additional fee of $10. On-site registrations will be accommodated on a space-available basis only. Cancellation will not be accepted after 5:00pm, Friday, February 26, 2010. No shows will be billed. Call 703-683-4742 with questions.