The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday approved a proposal to establish a process for deciding which swaps or class of swaps should be submitted to clearinghouses.

The proposal, approved  5-0, will be published for comment. A second vote is needed to implement it.

To reduce risk in the marketplace, the Dodd-Frank financial-law requires dealers and major traders to submit their routine swaps to a clearinghouse, which guarantees trades. Swaps are products generally used to hedge risk, but they also can be used to speculate on price movements.

Under Tuesday’s plan, a clearinghouse would be eligible to accept any swap or class of swaps that it already clears. If it’s a new type of product not cleared, however, then the clearing venue would need to seek special written approval from the CFTC to offer clearing.

Before deeming a swap eligible for clearing, the CFTC would have to examine outstanding notional exposures, trading liquidity and pricing data; the operational expertise, resources and credit support infrastructure to clear the contract; its effect on reducing system-wide risk; the effect on competition; and whether there is legal certainty if a clearinghouse becomes insolvent.

Traders also would  be able to seek temporary relief from clearing a swap under the rules until the CFTC completes a full product and clearing review.

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said Tuesday that while the agency has until July 2011 to finish its rulemaking, he hopes the rule insted will be done by April.

This shift in the timing, he said, “would allow us to begin reviewing the contracts that are already being cleared.”