- [B] Single stock futures bill cautiously back in play --
    By Mary Haffenberg, BridgeNews
    Chicago--Dec. 5--With Congress back in session this week, discussions on

the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 are on again. But after
months of negotiations that resulted in House legislation but no Senate bill, 
those

interested in the bill's passage are taking a cautious approach at its
chances of passage while Congress remains in session, even as key players 
held discussions Monday.              *                    *                  
*
    At a meeting with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm, R-Texas,

House Agriculture Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Ewing, R-Ill., and 
representatives of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of 
Trade on Monday in Washington, the group agreed on several points regarding 
legal certainty for banking products.     Though at least one source said 
that the final draft that came out on Tuesday of these agreements was the 
farthest the parties have ever gotten in

terms of conceptual agreements on these issues, others warned they'd been
down a suspiciously similar path before.     Conceptual agreements on these 
issues have been reached only to be
foiled when pen was put to legislative paper and the details were revealed 
and the proposed legislation was deemed unpassable.
    It would be to no one's surprise if the same thing happened again.
However, even the most ardent skeptics on Tuesday couldn't explain why Gramm 
has continued to discuss the bill if he had no intention of it ever passing.
    A spokeswoman for Gramm on Tuesday said that there is no time frame of
when the legislative language would appear. No further formal meetings on the
bill were scheduled on Tuesday afternoon
    In addition, as of midday Tuesday, Gramm had not contacted the U.S. 
Treasury Department, sources said, which must give its blessing to the bill
if it is going to pass. In the past, Treasury and Gramm have not been able to 
reach agreement on several issues regarding the regulation of banking
products. Retail protections and agency trades have been sticking points.     
The bill, which passed the Housed in October in a 377-4 vote, proposes
to provide legal certainty for a variety of over-the-counter markets, 
legalize single stock futures, revamp and codify the regulatory plan that 
oversees
the trading of derivatives products and reauthorize the Commodity Futures 
Trading Commission.
    The sticking point has been Gramm, who said that the bill will go
nowhere unless it contains provisions he thinks are necessary to exclude 
banking products from the act and to keep certain types of swaps out of the 
hands of

certain regulators.
    After the House bill passed, Gramm put forth 34 revisions to it. When 
discussions last left off before the federal elections, Gramm and Treasury
had resolved about 15 of those issues.     "One man, Senator Gramm, is 
holding up this bill," Ewing said at a press

conference last month.     Ewing, who retires from Congress at the end of 
this year, has taken the lead in shepherding the bill through the House and 
is now actively trying to

get it passed through the Senate.
    If agreement on legislative language is reached, the idea is that the 
Senate bill could be attached to a legislative package. But early this week 
there was talk of Congress passing a continuing resolution that would in
effect fund the government until next year, meaning no bills would pass until
Congress returned. End

[Begin BridgeLinks]
    Mary Haffenberg, BridgeNews, Tel: 312-454-3477
    Send comments to futures@Bridge.com
[End BridgeLinks]
    Copyright 2000 Bridge Information Systems Inc. All rights reserved.

Mary Haffenberg
Bridge News
30 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 1810 Chicago, IL 60606-7404
312-454-3477
312-454-3465 (fax)





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