Task force formed on transatlantic derivatives trade

US and EU regulators have set up a task force to help integrate regulated derivatives markets on each side of the Atlantic.

The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) named France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US to the task force. It will spend the next nine months determining a common set of information needed to register to trade derivatives in both jurisdictions.

The next stage will be to simplify the rules on access to the derivatives market, a process which could take up to two years, the regulators said. The overall process has been given a three-year deadline.

Derivatives traders, asked to comment on the rules, highlighted the importance of ensuring regulations match in each jurisdiction to avoid regulatory arbitrage. There were also calls for the registration process to be speeded up by standardising information requirements and allowing online registration. The regulators singled out a call for the legalisation of moving operations to a transatlantic disaster recovery site, saying "this idea has great merit and is specially identified."