The CFTC completed rules requiring banks or clearing houses to decide within minutes whether to clear a swap as soon as technologically possible. The rule was passed by a 4 – 1 vote.
At the meeting in Washington, CFTC chairman Gary Gensler said, “This lowers risk to the markets by minimizing the time between submission and acceptance or rejection of trades for clearing.”
The CFTC may require Wall Street banks and large funds to clear certain types of swaps as early as October, Chairman Gensler said. The Commission may publish recommendations in April for which types of swaps will be required to clear, which would then be open to a 90-day review process. The first determinations for what type of swap must be cleared may come as early as July.
