‘Perfect World’ Eludes Regulators in Aligning Swaps Rules

The potential for U.S. and foreign regulations to reach across national borders and create overlapping or conflicting rules is gaining urgency as global authorities seek to complete rules this year to prevent a repeat of the 2008 credit crisis.

The U.S. is facing increasing criticism from Canadian, British and European Union regulators over the possibility that the Volcker rule ban on proprietary trading would restrict foreign sovereign debt markets while exempting U.S. government debt. At the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meanwhile, regulators are facing pressure from JPMorgan Chase & Co., Barclays Capital and foreign regulators to limit the international reach of Dodd-Frank Act derivatives regulations.