CFTC Approves Rule Expanding Access to Swaps Clearinghouses

Swaps clearinghouses will be required to open access to companies with at least $50 million in capital under Dodd-Frank Act rules completed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

CFTC commissioners voted 3-2 today to implement governance of member-funded clearinghouses that will guarantee trades between buyers and sellers in the $601 trillion swaps market. Dodd-Frank, the financial-regulation overhaul enacted last year, included the rulemaking in the agency’s mandate after largely unregulated trades helped fuel the 2008 credit crisis.