Nine overseas finance officials urged U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew to limit the cross-border reach of Dodd-Frank Act swaps rules that they say are fragmenting the $639 trillion global market.

Seven finance ministers joined Michel Barnier, the European Union financial services chief, and George Osborne, U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, to tell U.S. officials to allow for broader recognition of overseas swaps rules. Their letter to Lew follows complaints by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and overseas officials about the planned reach of U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission rules.

"We are concerned that, without clear direction from global policymakers and regulators, derivatives markets will recede into localised and less efficient structures, impairing the ability of business across the globe to manage risk," the nine officials wrote in the letter sent to Lew yesterday.