Feature
Getting the deal done
Falling equity valuations have made funding a merger or acquisition with stock difficult. Equity derivatives dealers are devising and updating hedges to ensure deals get done despite the bear market. Rob Dwyer examines the latest techniques
A crisis of identity
Recent news stories have highlighted a controversy over identification of the specific reference entity in certain credit derivatives contracts. Troubling as this is, it reflects a more pervasive lack of discipline among financial institutions. In this…
The evolving art of pricing cliquets
Cliquet options are widely traded and embedded in many retail structured products. But they are hard to value and some dealers claim their rivals are mis-pricing them. Navroz Patel reports on the debate and some initiatives that may help
Insurers embrace risk systems
Insurance companies have been slower than banks to adopt advanced risk modelling techniques and technologies. But regulatory changes and business exigencies are spurring them to adopt a new generation of risk and capital management systems
Tools for the trade
Credit Risk
FSA sets August date for sale of securitised derivatives to retail sector
The UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) today published details of the regulatory regime for securitised derivatives that will enable the products to be available in the UK to retail investors. The proposed listing and conduct of business rules for…
Primus Financial starts credit derivatives trading
Derivatives market veterans Thomas Jasper and Joseph Bauman said their new firm, Primus Financial Products, a triple A rated provider of credit risk protection for the credit derivatives market, has started trading.
ISE elects Frank Jones as vice chairman
US electronic equity options market, the International Securities Exchange (ISE), has elected Frank Jones as vice chairman. He replaces Ivers Riley, who has been appointed chairman of the two-year-old ISE.
Swiss Re closes first round of catastrophe risk securitisation
Swiss Re Capital Markets has closed the first round of an innovative $2 billion natural catastrophe risk securitisation programme. The multi-peril, multi-year programme is known as Pioneer 2002, according to a catastrophe risk investor, who wished to…
UBS Warburg hires Mallory Brooks to head cross rates group
UBS Warburg has hired Mallory Brooks as head of the cross rates group in North America and co-head of the global hedge fund group in the bank's interest rates and foreign exchange (FX) division.
Algorithmics cashes in on regulator demands
Toronto-based risk technology company Algorithmics attributed record revenues for its fiscal year 2002 to increasingly stringent banking regulator demands on financial institutions for greater implementation of risk management software.
DrKW gets five-day OTC derivatives trading ban in Japan
Japan's financial market regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), has suspended Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) from trading over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives for five days. This follows an inspection that resulted in claims the German bank…
Aquila cuts energy staff, seeks partner
US energy company Aquila, which announced plans to wind down its energy derivatives trading book yesterday, took a large step towards doing so today by letting go 44% of its Merchant Services energy risk management workforce worldwide, including 71 of…
JP Morgan scoops Credit magazine's credit derivatives strategy research award
JP Morgan Chase has taken the top ranking in Credit magazine's credit derivatives strategy research survey, receiving almost twice as many nominations as the second ranked bank, Morgan Stanley. Credit is a sister publication to RiskNews .
Risk 2002 USA: Convergence opportunities growing
Growing product crossovers between the insurance sector and the derivatives markets have provided a range of attractive risk transfer opportunities, according to participants in a panel discussion on convergence at Risk’s 8th annual US congress in Boston…
Integrated credit risk management – are you ready?
Consolidating data across fragmented systems is crucial for integrated credit risk management – but it is not the whole story. In the first of four columns on the subject, David Rowe argues that organisational readiness is a more amorphous but equally…
Weaving an integrated solution
A treacherous credit environment and growing awareness of the danger of credit and market risk correlation have convinced financial institutions that they need to evaluate these exposures together. To get a unified view, will they need to adopt unified…
Macro finance: the bigger picture
Country risk
Taking a new career track
CDO managers
The roads to currency overlay
Forex risk
Integrating market correlation into risk-adjusted return
Hedge fund investing
Making the connection
Front-office systems
Examining market influence on credit risk
Currency correlations