If credit derivatives traders had behaved better – succumbed earlier to regulatory pressure and moved more decisively to deliver on their promises – could this all have been avoided?

So mused a former banker last week. He was referring not to the financial crisis, but to the tidal wave of regulation that is about to hit the over-the-counter derivatives market. And he was not referring to credit derivatives risks per se, but rather to the dealers' early - but ultimately empty - pledges to develop and use clearing solutions.