By Douwe Miedema
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. swaps regulator onMonday named a veteran of its enforcement unit to head itsmarkets oversight unit, as the agency deals with a raft ofhigh-profile commodities markets probes.
Vincent McGonagle, who has worked at the Commodity FuturesTrading Commission's enforcement division for nearly 16 years,played a leading role in the probe into the widely used Londoninterbank offered rate (Libor) benchmark scandal, the CFTC said.
He will take over as head of the Division of MarketOversight on Oct. 7. The division can start market probes andrequest information from market participants, but lacks thepower to subpoena companies or individuals.
McGonagle supervised the CFTC's cases against UBS AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and BarclaysPlc, which paid hefty fines for manipulating Libor.
The CFTC, whose powers were vastly expanded in the 2010Dodd-Frank law to include oversight of swaps, has recently been involved in several prominent market probes.
Led by ex-Goldman Sachs banker Gary Gensler, theagency has subpoenaed a number of major metals warehousingfirms, including Switzerland's Glencore, followingcomplaints about inflated metals prices.
The CFTC is also probing ISDAfix, a commonly usedderivatives benchmark, and is in talks to join Europe in itsinvestigation of oil markets, hunting for signs that tradingbenchmarks have been compromised.