On May 4, 2009, U.S. Senators Carl Levin and Susan Collins introduced a bill entitled “Authorizing the Regulation of Swaps Act” (the “Proposed Act”) relating to the regulation of derivatives transactions. The Proposed Act is another effort to increase regulatory oversight of the over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives market. (Another such attempt was the Derivatives Markets Transparency and Accountability Act, which was summarized in an Orrick Client Alert on February 19, 2009.) The lack of oversight of the derivatives market has been perceived by some as one of the underlying causes of the current financial crisis, primarily as a result of the losses that American International Group and other major financial institutions have attributed to their portfolios of credit default swaps.