White House to name senior U.S. Treasury official as CFTC head

Dec 10 - The White House plans to nominate Heath Tarbert, a senior Treasury official, as chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission next year, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Tarbert is the assistant secretary for international markets at the Treasury and will replace the current CFTC head J. Christopher Giancarlo, whose term as head of the U.S. derivatives regulator expires in April 2019.

In his role at the Treasury, Tarbert has focused on advancing U.S. interests within international regulatory forums, including the Financial Stability Board, and has helped lead U.S. discussions with the European Union over cross-border financial rules, according to his official biography.

Tarbert also serves as policy chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which seeks to promote U.S. investments, while safeguarding national security.

He has been overseeing the CFIUS at a time the inter-agency panel has balked at approving deals involving China in areas as disparate as semiconductors, insurance and aluminum.

Under Giancarlo, the CFTC has started to review derivatives trading and risk management rules introduced by the 2010 Dodd Frank law, but has kept a hard line on enforcement.

The number of enforcement actions brought by the U.S. swaps regulator jumped 25 percent, compared with the previous administration.

The White House and U.S. Treasury were not immediately available for comment.