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05 July 2011

FT: Dodd-Frank delay spells OTC dealer reprieve


A sudden slowing down in the implementation of key financial market reforms has delayed the shifting of over-the-counter derivatives to electronic trading platforms, allowing banks to cling on to a lucrative source of business for longer than expected.

One thrust of the post-crisis clean-up of the financial system, enshrined in G20 commitments agreed in 2009, was to require that the largely bank-controlled OTC derivatives markets be shifted on to formal trading platforms.

Such derivatives, including credit default swaps and interest rate swaps, were also to have been processed through clearing houses to help safeguard the financial system against fallout from future defaults.

Yet implementation of the Dodd-Frank act has been put back about six months, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to delay implementation from a deadline set by Congress of July 15 to the end of the year.

Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, the world’s largest interdealer broker, told the Financial Times: "Because the Dodd-Frank process has been caught in treacle, many in the financial industry aren’t pushing electronification yet".

Full article (FT subscription needed)


© Financial Times


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