President Donald Trump will nominate J. Christopher Giancarlo as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and James Donovan as deputy treasury secretary, the White House announced in a news release late Tuesday.
Mr. Giancarlo has been acting CFTC chairman since Timothy Massad resigned from the post on Jan. 20, the day of Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
Mr. Giancarlo on Feb. 14 announced the CFTC would delay enforcement of variation margin requirements for non-centrally-cleared derivatives trades until Sept. 1. Those rules, which went into effect March 1, were set by the agency as well as the European Union’s European Market Infrastructure Regulation and five U.S. banking regulators — the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Housing Finance Agency and Farm Credit Administration.
The CFTC was the first to announce a delay in enforcement while not officially removing the March 1 start date for the requirements, with the other regulators also backing off on full enforcement since then.
Mr. Giancarlo was nominated as CFTC commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2014.
Mr. Donovan is a managing director at Goldman Sachs & Co., working in both the firm’s investment banking and private wealth management units. If approved, he would work for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, a former partner at Goldman Sachs.
Both nominations require Senate approval.
