Today, Senator Harkin introduced legislation, known as the Derivatives Trading Integrity Act, which would require that all over-the-counter financial transactions be traded on regulated exchanges.
Specifically, Senator Harkin’s bill would amend the Commodity Exchange Act to eliminate the distinction between contracts, agreements and transactions in “excluded” and “exempt” commodities from those transactions that are currently required to be traded on regulated exchanges. Additionally, the bill would eliminate the statutory exclusion of swap transactions from the requirement that all futures contracts be traded on a regulated board of trade. If enacted, the proposed legislation would fundamentally reshape the way OTC derivatives are traded.
