Pressure to complete US swaps revolution

摘要

The US swap execution facility (SEF) mandate came into force in February 2014. Any swap deemed by an SEF to be made available to trade (MAT) on its electronic platform must be traded through a SEF and cleared through a central counterparty. Central clearing is designed to reduce bilateral counterparty risk in derivative trades, while SEF trading is intended to increase price transparency and ensure equal access for all participants. However, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) devoted part of the first meeting of its newly created market risk advisory committee (MRAC) in April 2015 to the question of why SEFs have not fulfilled expectations. More than 50% of swap trades now take place on SEFs, but buy-side representatives at the MRAC complained that the underlying relationships between market participants have not changed.