Interdealer brokers have set aside fierce rivalry to fund an unprecedented lobbying initiative as they seek to prevent what they fear could be collateral damage from the current push to “re-regulate” swathes of the financial industry.

The move is highly unusual because interdealer brokers rarely co-operate and are better known for poaching each other’s traders and taking revenge through litigation. Mickey Gooch, GFI chief executive, described such behaviour last year as “a circular firing squad” that was damaging the business.