President Obama has proposed a 50% increase in the fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to fully implement the regulatory reforms under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

The budget calls for $308 million to be allocated to the agency, $103 million more than the $205 million that was approved for the CFTC in the current fiscal year. The number of full-time employees (FTE) would rise to 1,015 from 710 FTE in FY 2012. The budget request would fund the agency from Oct. 1 through the end of September 2013.

In a budget letter to the House and Senate Appropriations committees, CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler acknowledged that the president’s funding request for the agency could be scaled back and said the agency was making preparations in the event that happened. “In its internal planning, the Commission must anticipate resources below the president’s FY 2013 budget of $308 million and 1,015 FTE while still fulfilling its mandate,” he wrote.

Gensler said “significant progress” was made last year in implementing the new mandate under Dodd-Frank, which requires the CFTC and the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate for the first time the $300 trillion U.S. swaps markets. This is in addition to the CFTC’s duties of regulating the $40 trillion futures and options markets.

Gensler noted that 59 proposed Dodd-Frank rules were published and 15 rules were finalized by the CFTC in FY 2011, and an estimated 45 rules will be finalized in the upcoming year. “The pace of implementation will accelerate in FY 2012, with provisional and full registration of new entities in the swaps market. And in FY 2013 the Commission’s focus will shift to the full implementation of the swaps market regulation.”

According to the breakdown of the CFTC’s proposed FY 2013 budget, $96 million (122 FTE) would go toward data and monitoring technology, compared to $62 million (85 FTE) in FY 2012; and nearly $52 million (214 FTE) would be spent on enforcement, up considerably from $38 million (166 FTE) in FY 2012.

The Obama administration has proposed increasing the CFTC budget for market oversight to $49 million (206 FTE) from $28 million (123 FTE) in the current fiscal year. And it proposed $30.3 million (130 FTE) for swap dealer and intermediary oversight in FY 2013, compared to $17.8 million (79) in FY 2012.

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