Global regulators call for stronger buffers for clearing houses

London

CLEARING houses may need bigger cash buffers to shield taxpayers from bailing them out, global regulators said on Tuesday in proposals aimed at stopping the sector from becoming a new breed of "too big to fail" firms.

Clearing houses such as LCH.Clearnet and Eurex Clearing stand between two sides of a derivatives trade to ensure its completion even if one side goes bust. They handle transactions such as interest rate and credit default swaps worth trillions of dollars.