CFTC Chair Massad is latest finance regulator to leave
WASHINGTON — The head of a federal agency that oversees potentially risky financial market activities will leave office at the end of the Obama administration on Jan. 20.
Timothy Massad announced his resignation Tuesday as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. President Barack Obama appointed the corporate attorney and former Treasury Department official to the post in November 2013. His term doesn’t end until 2019.
The CFTC regulates futures and options markets as well as derivatives trading, overseeing some of the riskiest corners of the financial world. Derivatives are traded in a $600 trillion global market and were blamed for fueling the financial crisis that struck in the fall of 2008.
Massad’s announcement follows news in November of the impending departure of another key financial regulator, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White.