Cross-border vortex: Dealers freeze plans to move staff

Banks have been quietly planning to move staff from New York to Toronto and London as a way of protecting clients from a new Dodd-Frank trap – but, with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission now facing a lawsuit and a leadership change, preparations are on hold, and confusion reigns. Peter Madigan reports

As 2013 drew to a close, one European bank was carrying out a hurriedly drawn-up plan to protect its clients from the long arm of the Dodd-Frank Act. It was simple enough in principle. Trades with non-US customers that wanted to avoid cross-border swaps rules would no longer be able to involve the bank’s staff in New York, as a November 14 bombshell from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had made clear. But, in practice, it meant getting that message across to thousands of