A definition of swaps required by the Dodd-Frank Act and approved by U.S. regulators will bring government scrutiny to a $648 trillion global market that has been largely unchecked since it emerged three decades ago.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities Exchange Commission, the agencies charged with overhauling financial regulation following the 2008 credit crisis, laid out for the first time when interest-rate, credit, commodity and other derivatives will be considered swaps. The designation approved yesterday activates rules to increase collateral requirements and bolster public trading of the products by companies such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Cargill Inc.

“This is significant to the American public because now we will bring transparency to these markets,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview after the commission met in Washington. “We will have dealers registering. We will lower the risk to the American public. Congress said further define a term. We further defined it. Two months from now a lot of Dodd-Frank comes into being.”