When chatter could be construed as collusion

The past month has been one that most foreign exchange traders would probably rather forget: painfully stagnant trading volume during the US government shutdown; the chaotic birth of swap execution facilities (Sefs); the bankruptcy of a household name in the currency management business; and a high-profile regulatory probe into the manipulation of FX benchmarks.

In some ways it feels that the FX market, which got through the financial crisis without lasting blemishes, is now enduring its