October 22, 2012 
The mix-up surrounding when most swaps would need to be cleared arose after the CFTC established two separate deadlines: one setting an effective date in which the clearing mandate begins and another by which market participants must be in compliance.
via Swaps Rule Sends Wall Street Into Clearing Limbo: Credit Markets – Businessweek.
If anyone has more info on the underlying issue, send it over. The story as written needs careful reading.
Useful chart here: http://deltastrategygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Delta-Strategy-Implementation-Timeline-10022012.pdf or download direct from here
Amir Khwaja
Ben Larah
Michael Beaton
corinaki24
Jon Skinner
Mihir Vaidya
Maria Leontiou
samihodgson
Bill Hodgson
Tom Riesack
Bill, Not sure what the confusion is. All the way along the Phase 1 date (now in Feb 2013) has been the date where SDs/MSPs and active funds must be clearing all mandatory products (subset of CDS and IRS). Rules which come in before that apply to any clearing activity that is already going on on a voluntary basis (e.g. D2D clearing / a few clients doing C2D clearing). Am I missing something?
It seems that firms assumed swaps executed before the compliance date would avoid clearing. The article implies that swaps transacted during the compliance period must be backloaded, causing references in the article to the effects on price of cleared versus uncleared.