Q&A: Sylvie Matherat on extraterritoriality and central clearing

Europe and the US are at loggerheads over the territorial scope of new derivatives rules – as evidenced by a new financial stability review from the Banque de France – but agreement can be reached, says Sylvie Matherat, the central bank’s deputy director-general for the directorate of general operations. By Duncan Wood

Extraterritoriality is a clumsy word that can be summed up in simple terms: applying your laws to people outside your country. That might seem indefensible, but Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), makes a good fist of it in the financial stability review published by the Banque de France on April 22.

In one of 23 contributed articles on the topic of over-the-counter derivatives, Gensler argues that exposure racked up by the teeming foreign outposts of US