Timothy Massad, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — Timothy Massad, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), tendered his resignation to U.S. President Barrack Obama, effective Jan. 20. Massad was sworn in as chairman and a commissioner of the CFTC on June 5, 2014, after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

“I came to the CFTC with a number of priorities, and I am proud we have made significant progress in every area,” Massad said. “We have largely finished implementing the regulatory framework for swaps, and have concentrated on the areas posing the greatest risk to the financial system. We have taken many actions to make sure commercial businesses can continue using the derivatives markets efficiently and effectively to hedge routine commercial risk and engage in price discovery.”

Massad will remain a commissioner for a few weeks in order to close out his office and handle administrative matters.

During his time as chair, the commission proposed and adopted margin requirements for uncleared swap transactions, which are perhaps the single most important element in swaps market regulation called for by the Dodd-Frank Act. Massad worked to make sure the rules focus on where the greatest risk exists, in transactions between large financial institutions, and are largely harmonized with other domestic and international requirements.

Previously, Massad was nominated by Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the assistant secretary for financial stability at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, Massad oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the principal U.S. governmental response to the 2008 financial crisis designed to help stabilize the economy and provide help to homeowners.  Under TARP, Treasury’s investments in financial institutions, the credit markets and the auto industry prevented the economy from falling into a depression. Massad was responsible for the day-to-day management and recovery of TARP funds, and during his tenure, Treasury recovered more on all the crisis investments than was disbursed. Massad also served as chief counsel for the program prior to becoming assistant secretary.