Obama Planning To Name Timothy Massad as Head of Swaps Regulator

Will announce later today

(Reuters)—President Barack Obama plans to name Timothy Massad as the next head of the U.S. swaps regulator, a White House official said, picking a lawyer who earned his spurs at the nation's bank bailout program.

At the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Massad would head an agency that was given vast new powers after the 2007-09 crisis to rein in uncontrolled trading of complex derivatives—a $630 trillion market—on Wall Street.