Chief compliance officers of swap dealers and major swap participants are facing a range of new responsibilities under reforms imposed by the Dodd-Frank Act, according to Stuart Wexler, general counsel of ICAP.
Buried in a provision in the act on swaps entities is a section that ramps up chief compliance officers’ duties in several ways, Wexler told delegates at a Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association event.
For instance, it calls on them to ensure compliance with all rules and regulations relating to swaps. Wexler questioned whether having to “ensure compliance” means, among other things, that compliance officers will have the right to fire a senior officer over a disagreement about a compliance issue. “That’s a dramatically different way to think about the role of compliance than we’re used to,” he said.
