Local over-the-counter interest rate securities exchange, Yieldbroker, has been granted relief by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, giving it direct access to US institutions.The CFTC said Yieldbroker was the first foreign regulated multilateral swap trading facility to qualify for long-term relief from its registration requirements.Yieldbroker, which was launched in 1999, is licensed as an exchange under an Australian Market Licence and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. It is 51 per cent owned by a consortium of banks and 49 per cent owned by the Australian Securities Exchange.Since 2013 it has received ongoing short-term relief from the CFTC's market oversight division, allowing it to provide direct access to US institutions to transact in derivatives on its platform without having to register as a swap execution facility with the CFTC.Last year the CFTC started an application process that would give Yieldbroker long-term relief from the registration requirement.As part of that process, Yieldbroker certified that it was subject to sufficient pre and post-trade price transparency requirements, provisions providing for non-discriminatory access by market participants and appropriate oversight in Australia.It also agreed to comply with certain reporting and clearing requirements specified by the CFTC.From the CFTC's point of view the Yieldbroker relief is a significant step in cross-border regulatory co-ordination of derivatives trading, which has been on the G20's agenda since the financial crisis.From the Australian financial markets point of view long-term relief will secure billions of dollars of trade for the exchange and provides greater commercial certainty for counterparties in swaps trades.Yieldbroker said more than 100 financial institutions use the exchange to access more than 900 debt securities and interest rate derivatives worth around A$200 billion a month.Yieldbroker chief executive Richard Swift said interest rate swaps trading was the largest part of the exchange's business, by volume, and accounted for about one-third of its revenue."Electronic exchanges are the future of over-the-counter trading. They are low cost and low risk," Swift said."This development will make things more efficient for financial institutions."