Argus Welcomes Price Reporting Protection in US Financial Reform Act

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Jul 21, 2010, 11:57 ET

LONDON, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Global energy price reporting agency Argus welcomes clarification in the financial reform act that innocent mistakes in communicating with price reporting agencies will not breach anti-market manipulation regulations.

Participants in spot energy and commodity markets had voiced fears that an anti-market manipulation clause contained within the bill could deter companies from sharing price and transactional information with price-reporting agencies.

But the 2,315 page Restoring American Financial Stability Act that was signed by President Barack Obama in Washington today, encompassing a swathe of financial reforms, contains the important clarification that:

"Mistakenly transmitting, in good faith, false or misleading or inaccurate information to a price reporting service would not be sufficient to violate [anti-manipulation measures]."

Argus believes this language should provide comfort to all market participants that they can maintain the flow of market-related information to price reporting agencies.

"This is a victory for common sense," says Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks. "It shows that Congress understands the important role played by price reporting agencies in bringing transparency to the cash energy and commodity markets. And it is a testament to the openness of the American political system that it will act on industry's concerns."

"Argus is firmly in favour of anti-manipulation legislation, but the law needs to protect the ability of the trade press to shed light on otherwise opaque markets. This piece of legislation does exactly that."

About Argus Media

Argus is a leading provider of price assessments, business intelligence and market data on the global crude and products, natural gas, coal, electricity, emissions and transportation industries. It is headquartered in London and has offices in Houston, Washington, New York, Portland, Calgary, Johannesburg, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Sydney, Moscow, Astana, Kiev, Santiago and other key centres of the energy industry. Argus was founded in 1970 and is a closely held UK-registered company. Learn more at www.argusmedia.com.