Today I will focus on the third aspect of this effort – reforms intended to strengthen financial market infrastructures. Specifically, I will look at measures to improve the clearing of OTC derivatives through the expanded use of central counterparties (CCPs) and the introduction of margin requirements for those OTC derivatives that remain bilateral.
In the United States, several agencies are working together to implement these reforms. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are responsible for establishing the regulatory regime for and supervising CCPs as well as determining which swaps must be centrally cleared.