George W. Bush on Tuesday nominated Reuben Jeffery, a former Goldman Sachs banker, as the next chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), passing over the acting chairman of the US futures industry regulator.

The appointment by the US president comes at a time when the agency is grappling with the sensitive issue of cross-border clearing of futures instruments amid moves by US exchanges - including demutualisation and pursuit of stock market listings - to allow them to better compete with European and other domestic US exchanges.