Reformer Supports CFTC SWAPs Negotiation With Caveats

When the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced an agreement with European participants to allow over the counter (OTC) SWAPs trading on foreign exchanges, as reported yesterday in ValueWalk, those knowledgeable of the vast power behind the largest Wall Street bank’s lobbying machine were skeptical.  After all, the recently reform-minded and now former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, who was said to have fallen out of favor with the Washington power elite due to his new-found gusto for financial reform of toxic derivatives, had just fought an aggressive if losing battle to keep U.S. banks trading on U.S. regulated Self Execution Facilities (SEFs).

But is this negotiated exemption...