Some of the big derivatives dealers breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the details of this week’s sweeping plan from the Obama administration to regulate over-the-counter derivatives.

With parts of the $680,000bn market blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis, large swathes of which are opaque even to regulators, there had been draft proposals flying around Washington that would have had an even more far-reaching effect than the current plans. In particular, the proposals unveiled by Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, on Wednesday, include plans for “the encouragement of regulated institutions to make greater use of regulated exchange-traded derivatives”.