SEC’s Stein sounds alarm on portfolio margining

Comment period on single-name CDSs is covert attempt at rulemaking, regulator says

Kara Stein: proposed text changes appear "more akin to a reproposal"

Kara Stein, a commissioner at the Securities and Exchange Commission, says an attempt to revive a 2012 proposal on security-based swap dealers may amount to stealth rulemaking.

The issue arose last week at an open meeting of the SEC, where it voted 4–1 to seek public comment on capital, margin and segregation rules proposed, then abandoned, several years ago. Those rules, governing single-name credit default swaps, were initially designed to meet Dodd-Frank Act requirements.

While the rules