Swiss Franc-Euro Decoupling Spurs Worldwide Legal and Regulatory Fallout Following the unexpected decoupling by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) of the Swiss franc-Euro exchange rate on January 15; the subsequent meteroic rise of the Swiss franc against the euro and, to a lesser extent, the US dollar; and the financial difficulty experienced by at least two international retail foreign exchange dealers, several exchanges and at least one regulator instituted a number of interim measures and promised more. Among measures taken by exchanges and one regulator: Because of the SNB's decoupling, at least two firms maintaining substantial retail clientele trading foreign exchange experienced significant losses and capital issues as a result of their clients' trading losses. This prompted one of the firms (based in the United Kingdom)—Alpari (UK) Limited—to initiate an insolvency proceeding last week.