Futures regulators are close to an agreement that would end a months-long standoff over a central plank of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law and finally bring more transparency to the trading of swaps, the complex financial contracts at the heart of the financial crisis.

The deal would represent a win for Wall Street's biggest swaps dealers and a big compromise for Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler, who has been at loggerheads with a fellow Democratic commissioner over one part of the rule.