Foreign exchange
BIS paper slams rating agencies
A new paper just published by the Bank for International Settlements' Monetary and Economic Department, titled 'Are credit ratings procyclical?' takes a critical view of rating agencies' activities.
Mercer snaps up Oliver Wyman
Mercer, a consulting division of New York-listed Marsh & McLennan, has bought specialist risk management and financial service practice consultants Oliver Wyman & Company for an undisclosed sum.
Reuters plans to tackle Bloomberg in fixed income
Jon Robson, the new head of Reuters’ fixed-income business and former chief executive of Moneyline Telerate, plans to apply his strategy at Moneyline to Reuters in a bid to diminish rival Bloomberg’s share the market.
BIS paper advocates macroprudential regulation
A new paper published on the Bank for International Settlements website attempts to alter perceptions of financial institution regulation by looking at the discipline through a macroprudential framework.
EU committee overhauled
At the February 18 meeting of the Council of Economics and Finance Ministers (CEFM), a decision was taken to overhaul the structure of the Financial Services Policy Group (FSPG).
EIB to outsource derivatives collateral management
The European Investment Bank (EIB), the financing institution of the European Union, is set to outsource its derivatives collateral management activities to Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Deutsche launches commodity indexes
Deutsche Bank has launched two new indexes that track the performance of a small set of liquid commodities.
Continuous-linked settlement: Extending to Asia
Continuous-linked settlement – the initiative designed to eliminate forex settlement risk – went live at the end of last year. But with only Australia and Japan represented in the first batch of currencies, what will CLS mean for Asia’s banks?
KPMG Study highlights regional differences in Basel implementation
According to a recently released global study by the consulting arm of KPMG, the the international auditing firm, there are significant differences in how financial institutions in the US and Europe are preparing for the coming Basel Accord revisions.
Waiting for guidance
South Korea's banks have made huge strides in implementing risk management systems over the past few years, but Basel II is not yet a driving force, with banks waiting for the Korean regulator to publish local guidelines.
ABN Amro revamps financial markets operations
ABN Amro has combined its global financial markets unit with its loan products division, as part of a major overhaul of its financial markets business.
AIR releases US temperature database
AIRWeather, a division of Boston-based natural hazard modelling company AIR Worldwide Corporation, yesterday released PerfecTemp Hourly, claiming that it is the first cleaned and reconstructed hourly station temperature database for the US. PerfecTemp…
Three more Korean securities firms receive derivatives licences
Three additional securities firms have received authorisation to trade over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives in South Korea following regulatory changes last July that opened up the OTC derivatives market to the country's securities houses.
Risk management based on stochastic volatility
Risk management approaches that do not incorporate randomly changing volatility tend to under- or overestimate the risk, depending on current market conditions. We show how some popular stochastic volatility models in combination with the hyperbolic…
IAS will inject volatility into financial statements, says S&P
The required adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS) for publicly listed European Union banks by 2005 is set to boost not only the transparency, but also the volatility of these institutions' financial statements in coming years, rating…
IAS will inject volatility into financial statements, says S&P
The required adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS) for publicly listed European Union banks by 2005 is set to boost not only the transparency, but also the volatility of these institutions' financial statements in coming years, rating…
Struggling with performance fees in a low-return market
European managers are starting to follow their US counterparts adopting adjustable high watermarks on an annual basis By Ralph savage
A winning combination
Employing a marketing agent to increase a hedge fund's size can prove beneficial in the long run ' and allows the fund managers to concentrate on the job in hand
Hancock, Merton and Mendoza launch Integrated Finance
Integrated Finance (IFL), the brainchild of Peter Hancock, Robert Merton and Roberto Mendoza – and one of Wall Street’s worst kept secrets – has officially opened for business.
Dollar downturn sparks rise in hedging activity
The fall of the US dollar in the past few months has sparked an increase in hedging activity among US companies, despite their reluctance to use hedges just six months ago.
Kamakura upgrades key risk management system
Kamakura, a Honolulu-based risk management technology company, has released a new version of Kamakura Risk Manager (KRM), its integrated risk management application.
Platinum offers hedge funds to Asian investors
Platinum Capital Management, the UK-based international financial investment group, has begun to offer two of its hedge fund products – Platinum Washington and Platinum Capital Protected Income Plus, Class A (Platinum Class A) – to high-net-worth…
Sponsor's article > Don't count on buffers
One possible mitigator of the pro-cyclical impact of risk-sensitive capital requirements would be counter-cyclical changes in capital buffers. Empirical evidence on this issue is scarce and a new regulatory capital regime could well induce a behavioural…