Washington, 25 March 2010

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission should not impose position limits on metals futures markets because that would push trading to markets outside the regulator's jurisdiction, an official from the world's biggest exchange operator said on Wednesday. Tom LaSala, the chief regulatory officer with the CME Group Inc , will tell a CFTC hearing set for Thursday that federally set position limits will not ensure that metals markets are operating fairly and efficiently.

"We believe that the CFTC understands that any effort to constrain trading on U.S. exchanges by the major firms that are large enough to hold positions near the limits will simply push those firms from regulated and transparent markets into the cash market, or to markets beyond the regulatory jurisdiction of the CFTC," LaSala said in a statement.

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