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Has mandatory clearing for swaps concentrated risk in the CCPs and made them too big to fail? Two recent industry papers bring into sharper focus the debate that has been raging under the surface of the markets.

Eurozone consumer prices suffered a 0.6% annual drop in January - the largest on record since July 2009 – according to Eurostat figures released on January 30.

On one hand, the European Commission is concerned that variation margin requirement for European pension funds in the event of an upward move in rates is so large that the repo market couldn’t handle it.

On November 10, 2014, the CFTC announced additional no-action relief for certain interest rate and credit default swaps, and the first phase of the relief is set to expire on February 15, 2015.

Following the meeting of its Governing Council on January 22, the European Central Bank (ECB) confirmed the launch of an expanded stimulus program aimed at boosting the eurozone economy.

Clarus analysis shows that it is clearly worth moving Futures positions that serve to reduce the risk of Swap positions from SPAN margined accounts to Portfolio margined accounts.

Intensifying regulatory demands are forcing financial institutions to streamline application portfolios, standardize and normalize data more effectively, and ensure the rapid integration and sharing of data across systems.

All of the world’s swap regulators recognize that reporting is a mess. And while the SEC’s final rule on Swap Data Repositories does not mandate SDRs monitor reporting data quality, there are signs that such monitoring may be in the offing. But don’t bet on the SEC getting the rules right.

Global regulators have missed a golden opportunity to shed light on the opaque swaps market.

New issuance of euro-denominated corporate debt intensified in February in the wake of the European Central Bank’s announcement on January 22 that it would launch an expanded quantitative easing program, effective in March.