A top US regulator said new rules governing the multitrillion-dollar derivatives markets are sending swaps trading overseas, threatening Wall Street jobs and potentially destabilising financial markets.

In remarks he intended to deliver at an industry conference this week, J. Christopher Giancarlo, the lone Republican among four commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said the agency's rules have split the swaps market into domestic and foreign niches, as non-US firms seek to avoid CFTC oversight.