A U.S. markets regulator on Wednesday voted to propose new rules that would require platforms that execute trades of security-based swaps to register with the agency in a bid to increase transparency of the over-the-counter derivatives market, Reuters reported. The proposals from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would fulfill a mandate under the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Law, passed in the aftermath of the 2007-09 global financial crisis, to bring clearer oversight to the opaque multitrillion-dollar derivatives market, the agency said. The measures, which are subject to public consultation, would require platforms known as swaps execution facilities (SEF) to register with the SEC and would see the agency more closely regulate platforms that trade security-based swaps. Wednesday's package of proposals, known as Regulation Swaps Execution, was voted on unanimously by the agency's three Democratic officials and its lone Republican commissioner. They would better harmonize the SEC's rules with a similar but more sweeping rule introduced by the Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC).
