Hensarling to retire; Bitcoin futures contracts coming

Receiving Wide Coverage ...
Going: Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, “one of the chamber’s most powerful panels, with responsibility for overseeing banks, brokerage firms and their regulators,” said he will retire from Congress at the end of next year.

“A conservative Republican, his record has been defined by his pushing to cut the size of government more than reaching deals that can clear Congress,” the Wall Street Journal comments. “Many of his top policy goals have languished,” it said, including “a broad rollback of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial overhaul and phasing out government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, American Banker

Betting on bitcoin: CME Group, the world’s largest exchange group, said it expects to launch a bitcoin futures contract by the end of the year. The plan, which is subject to regulatory approval, “offers a stamp of approval from a financial giant at a time when the digital currency’s supporters say it is gaining respectability,” the Journal notes.

However, it said, “the move is nonetheless risky for CME, which could face embarrassment if the bitcoin market implodes, as some skeptics predict will eventually happen. There is no guarantee that its bitcoin initiative will succeed. Many new futures contracts introduced by exchanges fail to take off.”

In addition, “longtime participants of derivatives markets say starting up a healthy, thriving market for cryptocurrency futures or options could be complicated,” the paper says in an accompanying story. “They point to issues like how to value bitcoin derivatives and whether there will be enough traders who can consistently post prices.”

The announcement by CME sets off a competition with rival Cboe Global Markets, which said in August it plans to launch derivatives on bitcoin in the next few months.

Not enough bitcoin for you? Tuesday’s Journal is filled with stories about the digital currency. For those who don’t know what bitcoin is, and what a futures contracts on it means, the paper presents a primer.

It also looks at other issues involving the cryptocurrency.

Wall Street Journal
Big jump: Mastercard said its third quarter revenue rose 18% “due to a mix of increased consumer spending, market-share gains against smaller networks abroad and the continuing shift of payments from cash to cards.” The payments company also beat analysts’ estimates on profit, which increased 21% to $1.43 billion.

Quotable
“Today I am announcing that I will not seek re-election to the U.S. Congress in 2018. Although service in Congress remains the greatest privilege of my life, I never intended to make it a lifetime commitment, and I have already stayed far longer than I had originally planned.” — Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.