Dodd-Frank exception for SEC registered broker dealers was to expire July 16, 2013.

The SEC has quietly extended by three years the exception provided to broker dealers to engage in what it terms ‘retail forex transactions’. By the straight Dodd-Frank Act rules, all broker dealers in the U.S. were to cease Forex transactions with retail traders as of July 16, 2011.

On that date, all foreign commercial banks were indeed barred from taking U.S. retail clients, with led to the exodus of then-active forex brokers (which were organized as banks in their home countries) from the U.S. market, such as Saxo Bank, MIG Bank, Swissquote, and Deutsche Bank, which sold its dbFX brand to Gain Capital.

However U.S. based and regulated banks were given a two-year exception to the Dodd-Frank rule, which was to have expired yesterday. The three year extension goes through July 16, 2016.

For the full SEC note on the extension click here (pdf).

For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.