New proposals could take the sting out of Sefs, say industry experts

The appearance of the Sef Clarification Act last month, coupled with a changing mood in Washington, DC, has given rise to a more positive outlook among e-commerce experts

Wayne Pestone, FXall

Since the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into US law in July 2010, debate has raged about what the advent of swap execution facilities (Sefs) might mean for single-dealer electronic commerce platforms, particularly in the foreign exchange market.

In the original wording of Dodd-Frank, users of a Sef would be required to "have the ability to execute or trade swaps by accepting bids and offers made by multiple participants". In many early interpretations of the law, that definition was seen to sound