One thrust of the post-crisis clean-up of the financial system, enshrined in G20 commitments agreed in 2009, was to require that the largely bank-controlled OTC derivatives markets be shifted on to formal trading platforms.

Such derivatives, including credit default swaps and interest rate swaps, were also to have been processed through clearing houses to help safeguard the financial system against fallout from future defaults.

Yet implementation of the Dodd-Frank act has been put back about six months, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to delay implementation from a deadline set by Congress of July 15 to the end of the year.

Michael Spencer, chief executive of Icap, the world’s largest interdealer broker, told the Financial Times: "Because the Dodd-Frank process has been caught in treacle, many in the financial industry aren’t pushing electronification yet".

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