Taming the systemic risk Hydra: 10 years of mandatory clearing

Regulators, clearers and market participants reflect on a decade of the clearing requirement

It’s more than 15 years since the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse – and just over a decade since the regulatory response first brought mandatory swap clearing to the US. 

By requiring central clearing of interest rate and index credit default swaps (CDSs) – a push which began in earnest on September 24, 2009, when G20 economic leaders convened in Pittsburgh, US – regulators were attempting to prevent another default on the scale of the US