Unlucky for some: Europe’s war on 13 Dutch prop traders

Liquidity hit feared as FlowTraders, IMC, Optiver and other non-banks face bank-style capital rules

Sandwiched between one of Amsterdam’s many canals and one of its many squares are the squat offices and round tower of the Dutch National Bank.

Here, on November 14, a group of shell-shocked executives from Dutch proprietary trading firms assembled for a meeting with their prudential regulator. The day before, the DNB had announced the scrapping of the regulatory framework under which the 13 firms had operated since January 2014.

It was cold outside, and the meeting was about to get frosty,