Claim: Bill Clinton was President of the United States.

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 -LRB- CFMA -RRB- is United States federal legislation that officially ensured modernized regulation of financial products known as over-the-counter derivatives . It was signed into law on December 21 , 2000 by President Bill Clinton . It clarified the law so that most over-the-counter -LRB- OTC -RRB- derivatives transactions between `` sophisticated parties '' would not be regulated as `` futures '' under the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936 -LRB- CEA -RRB- or as `` securities '' under the federal securities laws . Instead , the major dealers of those products -LRB- banks and securities firms -RRB- would continue to have their dealings in OTC derivatives supervised by their federal regulators under general `` safety and soundness '' standards . The Commodity Futures Trading Commission 's -LRB- CFTC -RRB- desire to have `` Functional regulation '' of the market was also rejected . Instead , the CFTC would continue to do `` entity-based supervision of OTC derivatives dealers . '' These derivatives , including the credit default swap , are a few of the many causes of the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent 2008 -- 2012 global recession .