Wall

Despite an uncertain regulatory environment as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) continues to finalize trading rules under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, two trading exchange powerhouses posted impressive earnings.

ExxonMobil Corp.’s oil and gas production volumes had languished before 2010, often in the single digits as the oil major failed to build a resource base to equal its profits. However, that changed last year with the purchase of U.S. shale king XTO Energy Inc. and was proved Thursday when ExxonMobil said its quarterly volumes were up 10% from a year ago.

At the agency’s first meeting following the one-year anniversary of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Tuesday overwhelmingly voted out three final rules aimed at reviewing swaps for mandatory clearing and removing references to credit agencies in CFTC regulations. Chairman Gary Gensler said end-users, which are exempt from clearing swaps, will not have to meet capital margin requirements.

Coming in under the implementation deadline of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act rules, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), announced Friday that ICE Trust U.S., ICE’s North American credit default swap (CDS) clearing house, will complete its transition to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) and Securities and Exchange (SEC)-regulated Securities Clearing Agency (SCA) by Saturday, July 16.

Coming in under the implementation deadline of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act rules, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), announced Friday that ICE Trust U.S., ICE’s North American credit default swap (CDS) clearing house, would have completed its transition to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) and Securities and Exchange (SEC)-regulated Securities Clearing Agency (SCA) by Saturday, July 16 (see related story).

With the July 16 deadline fast approaching for implementation of much of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Tuesday agreed to postpone compliance with the new derivative law by at least six months to the end of the year.

The House Financial Services Committee Tuesday voted out amended legislation that would postpone implementation of Section 7 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act to October 2012.

The shale natural gas industry is “under siege” by some critics and without the public’s support, access to the massive reserves also could be diminished, an industry executive said Wednesday.

The heads of the Senate and House committees overseeing the implementation of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act Thursday urged federal regulators to provide an exemption from margin requirements for end-user transactions in the derivatives markets.