Articles by Louie Woodall
Initial margin held by JSCC swelled 65% in Q1
Largest IM call for JGB index futures and options unit was ¥443.9 billion
DTCC’s mortgage unit hit by $1.5bn margin breach in Q1
A large, directional portfolio $100 billion in size was to blame
OCC made $32bn initial margin call in Q1
Clearing house reported peak margin breach of $273 million
Fourteen margin breaches at CME’s swap unit in Q1
The peak breach was almost $80 million in size
Foreign banks and Fed at odds on stress test impacts
HSBC North America predicted a loan-loss rate of 2.7%, well below the Fed’s 6% estimate
SwapClear incurred a $558m margin breach in Q1
Liquidity and concentration add-ons covered 41% of mark-to-market exposure
Three systemic US banks face stress capital buffer add-ons
JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley will see minimum requirements increase under new regime
Margin breaches exceed €500m at Eurex in Q1
Eurex disclosed 3,180 margin shortfalls over twelve months to end-March
Fed’s Covid scenarios far harsher than latest stress tests
Under worst-case, 25% of banks would have post-stress CET1 ratios of less than 4.8%
Goldman faces high stress capital buffer after Fed tests
Bank projects 640bp peak-to-trough capital hit in DFAST
Giant US banks outgrew smaller rivals in Q1
Banks over $10 billion in size also saw Tier 1 leverage ratios fall furthest
US banks face capital hit from resurgent advanced approaches
Banks pushed onto internal models wrestle with procyclical capital charges
Equity derivatives aided BlackRock funds in March
Flagship Strategic Income Opportunities fund posted $253 million in net derivatives gains at height of Covid crunch
Prudential filters crimp some banks’ own funds, boost others
Two banks saw CET1 climb more than 5% at end-2019 through the EU’s valuation adjustments
Niche EU lenders loaded with loans to peripheral eurozone
Top European banks have limited exposures to Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and Italy
Covid shock could topple US insurers’ exotic CLOs
Losses on “atypical” tranches could hit $899 million
Top European insurers bet on private equity
Allianz and Axa had a combined €29 billion at end-2019
BlackRock's muni funds slow to rebound from Covid crunch
Cumulative returns have barely edged up for these funds since end-March
Time for the standardised approaches to shine
Banks are playing a canny game of capital optimisation by toggling between internal models and regulator-set approaches
EU bank credit models neglect peripheral countries
A majority of non-core EU exposures are under the standardised approach
Client margin up 40% at Morgan Stanley’s swaps unit in Q1
Aggregate US FCM margin up a huge $34.8 billion quarter-on-quarter
Market risks push up top EU insurers’ capital charges
Allianz sees SCR for market risk surge 28% year-on-year
Sold CDS notionals climbed 16% at top US banks in Q1
Net fair value of credit protection positions vaults to $5.3 billion
Short funds’ moment in the sun is over
DSB funds are in the red year-to-date after a spectacular performance through March