Securities and Exchange Commission staff have taken a slower approach than the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, carefully incorporating input from commissioners' offices. The CFTC was given authority in last year's Dodd-Frank financial law for the majority of the over-the-counter swaps, but the SEC is expected to carefully tailor its rules to the narrower slice of the markets that it will regulate. These include often illiquid equity swaps and certain kinds of credit-derivatives that may not lend themselves to exchange-style trading.

The law requires certain over-the-counter products to be traded on exchanges or a new kind of alternative platform known as a "swap execution facility" or "SEF." The requirements placed on SEFs by regulators will have a major impact on competition in the sector, where companies from IntercontinentalExchange to ICAP are vying for a slice of the business. The SEC and CFTC are both required to complete the SEF rules by July.

The SEC is already over a month behind the CFTC in unveiling its proposal. But unlike the CFTC, which was forced to scale back its initial proposal amid outcry from commissioners who said it was too inflexible, the SEC isn't expected to have the same kind of drama.

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