WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday told lawmakers that no major changes are needed in how the over-the-counter derivatives markets are regulated but said some standardization would be useful for exchange trading and clearing of these instruments.

"They help with risk sharing, they provide liquidity to hedges, so I am not advocating any major change in the way we look at those particular instruments other than to make sure that we clear them and sell them properly," Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee.

His comments came amid a spate of questions about the expanded role of derivatives trading in oil markets. Some lawmakers on Capitol hill are calling for tighter regulation of these customized and privately negotiated transactions, fearing they could be to blame for higher oil prices.

"OTC derivatives are not really unregulated in the sense that the dealers and the banks who make these transactions are of course regulated, one way or another, and one of the things that the oversight regulators do is make sure that they are taking adequate precautions for counterparty risk, that they are managing their positions in a safe way," Bernanke said.

Bernanke did say that a move toward standardizing some of these instruments so they can be traded on an exchange or cleared through a central clearinghouse is something to consider.

"In general, I think there is some reason to look for more standardization where possible, so that we could begin to use particular exchanges as ways of improving liquidity and management of counterparty risk," he said. "We need to continue to make sure that the clearing and settlement process works efficiently, so there's no confusion or delay.

(Reporting By Joanne Morrison; Editing by Leslie Adler)