Congress should amend the Dodd-Frank Act to remove barriers toglobal regulators sharing data about the $708 trillion swapsmarket, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's head ofinternational affairs said.

The 2010 law requires regulators from other nations to indemnifyso-called swap-data repositories and U.S. regulators againstlitigation costs before accessing the data. The requirement mayundermine regulators' access to data kept in repositories such asthe Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. as they seek to enforce newrules designed to reduce risk and increase transparency.

The requirement “interferes with access to essentialinformation” because most foreign governments lack authority toprovide indemnification, Ethiopis Tafara, the SEC's head ofinternational affairs, said in testimony prepared for a HouseFinancial Services subcommittee hearing today. “In removing theindemnification requirement, Congress would assist the SEC, as wellas other U.S. regulators, in securing the access it needs to dataheld in global trade repositories,” he said.