Europe’s exchanges have weighed into the debate over the future of financial regulation by laying the blame for the credit crisis squarely with the $684 trillion (€546 trillion) over-the-counter derivatives industry and calling on the European Commission to improve the transparency of OTC markets.

In a letter to the EC's high level group on cross-border financial supervision, the Federation of European Securities Exchanges, a trade body, said "unregulated" OTC derivatives were "at the core of the crisis".