ABSTRACT
On 17 December 1951, London based foreign exchange dealers regained the right to do something from which they had been barred for over twelve years. This was to make a market in the leading international currencies. For the first time since 2 September 1939, they were allowed to conduct interbank transactions and to run positions in key currencies, such as the US dollar and the Swiss franc. The re-opening of the market in the specified currencies marked an important step towards ridding the London foreign exchange market of its wartime shackles. However, there was still some way to go before it was able to trade with anything like the freedom of the pre-war days.
