HOUSTON |
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Big energy companies like Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) and commodity merchants like Cargill CARG.UL have a simple argument in pushing back against looming new swap market rules: We’re not a bank, so don’t regulate us like one.
But their efforts to avoid being branded a “swap dealer,” a designation that brings with it greater scrutiny and onerous new rules, tend to sidestep the fact that, in one small but important way, most of them trade exactly like a bank.
For much of the past decade, companies including BP Plc (BP.L), U.S. conglomerate Koch and Swiss-based trader Vitol have quietly offered their hedging strategies and risk management savvy to other firms, often going head to head with banks like Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) to pitch airlines, utilities or producers on ways to hedge prices.
Now, a pivotal rule in the financial overhaul of the $700 trillion derivatives market may force them into a stark choice: retain their third-party
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