With Rep. Stephen Lynch proposing an amendment to limit bank ownership of derivatives clearinghouses, Tradeweb's CEO Lee Olesky issued the following statement with regard to the Lynch Amendment and its impact on the development of clearinghouses and execution platforms.

"Any significant form of restriction on the ownership of execution platforms and clearing houses is concerning. Aside from being anti-competitive, it is unclear how such a proposal could benefit market participants. Electronic execution platforms have proven to deliver enhanced transparency and more efficient markets. These principles are at the heart of what Congress is trying to achieve. Attempting to limit the types of entities that could invest capital in companies that provide these innovative solutions is bad public policy and counter-productive for the evolution of the market."

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News is reporting that the amendment won't affect existing businesses like LCH.Clearnet Ltd. or Tradeweb LLC, but rather new businesses created to trade and clear derivatives. But some of the leading platforms are owned by banks. Tradeweb, an electronic bond and derivatives execution platform, is a partnership between the large investment banks (Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Barclays Plc) and Thomson Reuters. The Bloomberg article points out that London-based LCH.Clearnet is the largest clearinghouse in Europe and is majority owned by banks, while NYSE Euronext's new exchange NYSE Liffe U.S. Lynch, signed an ownership stake agreement on Oct. 30 with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. FXall, the online currency trading network, has banks owning more than 20 percent and banks are among the owners of BATS Global Markets, which operates the U.S. equity market BATS Exchange.

In a phone interview, Rep. Lynch told Bloomberg News that the new ownership rules will affect new clearinghouses and execution platforms that will arise to compete with the bank-owned platforms and clearing entities. Lynch is expected to reintroduce his amendment on Thursday when the full house meets to take up the financial reform bill.