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Commissioners on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 4 to 1 to pass long-awaited derivatives trading rules on Thursday that preserve voice-based transactions in conjunction with electronic platforms.

The compromise on trading systems is seen as a victory for the established over-the-counter swaps business, which is dominated by global banks and interdealer brokers. It comes after an intense lobbying effort by Wall Street since the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law nearly three years ago.

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) may even-up block trade rules for swaps and swap futures, it announced today, as long-awaited requirements for swap execution facilities (Sefs) were approved at an open meeting in Washington, DC. As things stand, swaps are subject to CFTC-set block thresholds – which allow big trades to avoid real-time reporting requirements – but exchanges can set their own thresholds for futures contracts.

Critics have argued this disparity hands the exchanges – formally known as designated contract markets (DCMs) – an unfair advantage in cases where they are trading products that are economically equivalent to over-the-counter swaps. The CFTC appears to be listening.

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Repeated delays to the publication of final rules on swap execution facilities (Sefs) under the Dodd-Frank Act are causing widespread frustration in the foreign exchange market as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) now doesn't expect to decide on the issue before late April at the earliest.

After numerous mooted deadlines had been missed since draft rules were first published in early 2011, market participants expected clarity in early March. 

A lead US regulator has circulated a confidential draft proposal in an attempt to broker a deal that would finalise planned rules for the $639tn derivatives market.

Bart Chilton, a Democratic member of the five-person Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has in recent days internally proposed a compromise on rules for derivatives marketplaces, or “swap execution facilities”, according to people who have seen the document.