President Trump handpicks ex-Citi MD as CFTC acting chair
US derivatives regulator will be chaired in the interim by Caroline Pham, who succeeds Rostin Behnam after his three-year reign
Caroline Pham has been appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as acting chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the financial regulator responsible for derivates and swaps.
Pham was sworn in as a CFTC commissioner in April 2022 by then President Joe Biden, where a large part of her tenure focused on access to markets and establishing regulations to promote market liquidity.
Pham’s most recent role outside of the CFTC was a seven-year stint at investment bank Citi, having arrived in October 2014 as a director and head of markets regulatory implementation.
By the time of her exit in April 2022, Pham had held titles including managing director, head of capital markets and head of market structure for strategic initiatives.
Pham’s ties to the CFTC in a senior capacity date back to June 2013 as a special counsel and policy advisor before departing for Citi.
She replaces former CFTC chair Rostin Behnam, who confirmed his resignation earlier this month.
Notably, Pham has previously publicly disagreed with event trading contracts, a topic that has garnered significant discussion in recent months.
The derivatives regulator has long argued that election event contracts, as offered by the likes of Kalshi, Polymarket, and Robinhood, should be banned.
The regulator’s reasoning lay in the notion those markets could “incentivize the spread of misinformation” by individuals or groups seeking to “influence perceptions of a political party or a party candidate’s success.”
In May of last year, the governing body confirmed defined event contracts involving political contests as gaming.
Pham issued a dissenting statement in response in which she insisted the CFTC’s regulations represented a “wasted opportunity.”
“I respectfully dissent from the event contracts proposal because it takes the CFTC’s regulation of event contract markets backwards with its fundamental misunderstanding of how we regulate derivatives and the states regulate gaming,” she noted.
“Instead of thoughtfully considering how to effectively regulate these markets while fostering innovation, the event contracts proposal ties itself in knots over the bounds of gaming, which congress has neither asked nor directed the Commission to regulate.
“I am simply disappointed in this wasted opportunity to regulate retail binary options, sidestepping our responsibility, and concerned about its legal impact.”
Eventually, predictions market Kalshi emerged victorious in a court case with the CFTC, allowing the New York-based startup to launch event trading contracts on the US presidential election.
Earlier this month, President Trump’s son, Don Jr., was named as an advisor to the company.
Robinhood also launched a CFTC-regulated US presidential election product, which bosses said saw more than 507 million contracts traded. CEO Vladimir Tenev has also spoken about the retail trading app possibly expanding into sports betting.
Crypto.com became the first firm to launched CFTC-regulated sports trading contracts just before Christmas, although the CFTC has since requested the crypto exchange pause its offering as part of an investigation into its legality.
Crypto.com said it would not comply with the request.
Pham is supporter of crypto and would like to see digital currencies integrated into the financial system.
On her appointment as chair, she said: “I’m humbled and grateful to be entrusted by President Trump to lead the CFTC as we approach a significant milestone in our history with tremendous opportunities ahead.
“For the past half century, the CFTC has proudly served our mission to promote market integrity and liquidity in the commodity derivatives markets that are critical to the real economy and global trade.
“As the CFTC celebrates our 50th anniversary, we must also refocus and change direction with new leadership to fulfil our statutory mandate to promote responsible innovation and fair competition in our markets that have continually evolved over the decades. It’s time for the CFTC to get back to the basics.”