OTC break-up may reverse - but only if rules mesh too

The OTC market appears to be splitting along jurisdictional lines - a long-predicted outcome of the timing gaps between regulators. But putting it back together again may not be as simple as waiting for all the rules to fall into place

As a practical matter, compliance can mean very different things, depending on which side of the regulatory divide someone sits. A good example is the clarification issued by staff at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last November, in which they advised the US branches of non-US banks that if just one of their traders or salespeople was involved in a transaction with an overseas client, the trade would be subject to CFTC rules. The staff may have thought, “Terrific. To comply, all