The Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) head of internal affairs, Ethiopis Tafara, said that Congress should amend the Dodd-Frank Act and remove barriers to global regulators sharing data about the $708 trillion swaps market.
Under Dodd-Frank, regulators from other nations are required to indemnify swap-data repositories and U.S. regulators against litigation costs before they may receive the data. The SEC says this may undermine regulators’ access to data kept in various repositories.
Tafara’s testimony before the House Financial Services subcommittee hearing said that the requirement “interferes with access to essential information” because most foreign governments do not have the proper authority to provide indemnification. “In removing the indemnification requirement,” Tafara said, “Congress would assist the SEC, as well as other U.S. regulators, in securing the access it needs to data held in global trade repositories.”
Dodd-Frank is intended to increase derivatives transparency, by requiring the reporting of price and trade information to data repositories.
Photo credit: Tricia Wang
