Derivatives business must better state its case, says del Missier

The global derivatives industry must make a concerted effort to educate people about the usefulness of derivatives and deal with misconceptions, Jerry del Missier, head of rates and private equity and regional head of Europe for Barclays Capital, told delegates attending Risk ’s Global Risk Management Summit in Monte Carlo. “We must embrace transparency as an industry,” he said.

Del Missier highlighted the misperception of derivatives in the mainstream media, such as the representation of the Enron failure as a derivatives-based problem rather than a breakdown in corporate governance. “We need to focus on pushing back those misperceptions,” he said, adding that the industry has “an obligation to educate analysts and the press at large”.

To achieve this transparency, however, some dealers will have to take strategic risks, such as introducing electronic derivatives