SEC Looking At Insider Trading Rules For Commodities Markets

SEC Chairman Mary Jo White recently stated at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the SEC was examining whether the insider trading rules should be expanded to include the commodities markets.  White's statements were made in response to questioning about the role of several large banks in the commodities market.  Insider trading is enforced in the equities market by the antifraud provisions but those provisions do not apply to the commodities market. 

White's comments were made in response recent criticism from several lawmakers relating to large banks' commodities holdings.  For example, Senator Sherrod Brown recently asked regulators to look into the possibility that banks were trading on information that they have as a result of their ownership of physical commodities, such as banks owning large fleets of oil tankers and trading on the price of oil.