The relevant letter was drawn up by the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) and makes the case that plans for new rules in the sector do not do enough to ensure appropriate levels of competition will be maintained.

"We are already seeing significant merger activity in this space, so the impending threat to competition is very real unless safeguards for market infrastructure are in place," said Martin O'Donovan, deputy policy and technical director at ACT.

A string of signatories added their weight to the claims made by the ACT, including a number of investors, brokers and relevant intermediaries. The group itself is comprised of experts in the fields of risk, corporate governance and treasury.

"With regulations and market conditions changing over coming years, the ACT's concern is for non-financial companies and others that use derivatives primarily as hedging instruments," the association said.

"The organised trading facilities or exchanges are for a significant part of the market vertically integrated with a clearing house and do not allow access to competition from other clearers," O'Donovan said.