A longstanding inter-agency squabble may finally be put to rest with an announcement that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have started sharing market data.

The initial transmission of market data, under a recently-adopted Memorandum of Understanding, was announced on March 5. Also revealed was the creation of a staff-level Interagency Surveillance and Data Analytics Working Group. It will coordinate information sharing between the agencies and focus on data security, data sharing infrastructure, and the use of analytical tools for their regulatory purposes. The two announcements “represent a milestone in inter-agency market oversight and will better ensure the integrity of the energy markets,” CFTC Acting Chairman Mark Wetjen said in a statement.

As directed by Congress under the Dodd-Frank Act, the CFTC and FERC entered into an MOU on Jan. 2, 2014 that ensures information requests related to markets within the respective jurisdiction of each agency are properly coordinated. Information-sharing between the two agencies has long been a thorny issue. Norman Bay director of FERC's Office of Enforcement, was blunt in his assessment during a Jan. 15 Senate hearing, shortly after the MOU was signed.

“Our surveillance program has limitations because we do not have access, at present, to certain financial data from the related financial markets,” he said. “Much of the relevant financial data we seek is traded on markets regulated by the CFTC. Despite negotiations over several years, the CFTC has not yet provided FERC with access to the financial information and data our office needs, except on an ad hoc case-by-case basis.” 

The MOU, he said, is “a first step toward sharing appropriate data in a timely manner.”