Foreign exchange
FSA clarifies research standards issues
The UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) has issued new and wide-ranging guidelines for investment banks related to their publication of research in new issues of securities.
Patriot Act Point of Pain: Reference Data
The financial industry is expected to spend more than $10 billion to comply with the Patriot Act over the next three years. And at the heart of the issue is the data.
New Market, New OMS Sales Pitch
Baring Asset Management is doing something that a lot of trade order management vendors and market analysts wish the rest of the financial world would do: after implementing a new third-party order management system to replace its older in-house system,…
Open Platform - Not Just An Equity Front-End
The future OMSs will include a stronger fixed income role and maybe even middle- and back-office functions like confirmations and allocations.
GFI launches mark-to-market service for forex options
Inter-dealer broker GFI is attempting to establish a benchmark daily 'revaluation fixing' service for currency options in response to new accounting standards designed to assign a fair value to derivatives positions.
Banca Intesa: conquering the cultural challenges of op risk
MILAN - Much ink will be spilled over the more quantitative aspects of operational risk — modelling, data gathering, technology infrastructure, for example. But it's the cultural challenges of implementing an operational-oriented framework that risk…
PwC: Poor governance will cost capital
HONG KONG - Sixty percent of respondents to a recent PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) study indicated that trust in financial institutions had been eroded globally.
McDonough speaks on QIS3 results, and US regulatory changes
"At this early stage, the results suggest that the incentives built into the New Accord are functioning as we had hoped," said William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the head of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision…
Vwd Launches Energy Analysis Service
German news and data provider vwd has launched an analysis product for the electricity and natural gas markets. The service is aimed at energy traders, analysts, portfolio managers, distributors and brokers.
Heavyweights move to tackle rising unnamed counterparty risk
Top foreign exchange banks are joining forces with central banks and industry groups to eliminate unnamed counterparty risk.
Hedge fund of fund investors may start using overlays
Improved risk exposure reporting by hedge funds may spark the introduction of new overlay strategies by investors increasingly concerned by bubbles of non-diversifiable risk in their portfolios.
Profile: Dresdner makes loss prevention a new priority
Operational risk management is a management programme, not just a modelling exercise, according to Jonathan Howitt, director of operational risk at investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London.
Tiner defends insurance margin changes
In a speech today to the Westminster & City Twentieth Anniversary life insurance conference, the Financial Services Authority's John Tiner sought to clarify a letter, released last Friday, that relaxed the solvency regime for UK life assurers.
FSA decision prompts tightening for insurers' credit spreads
The cost of protection for the European insurance sector has tightened by up to 15bp in trading this week following a decision by UK regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to ease regulatory solvency requirements for individual life assurers.
Extreme Outsourcing
"Lift-out" outsourcing projects by major institutional firms prime the pump for the rest of the industry.
FSA announces 2003 priorities
The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) outlined its strategy for fiscal year 2003-2004 in its annual budget and a report, Financial Risk Outlook 2003, released in late-January.
Fitch upgrades OpVar tool for operational risk
Fitch Ratings has added a range of new services to its OpVar software suite, an operational risk management quantification tool. Version 5.0, scheduled for release in March, now offers an enhanced data collection module and improved data management…
Nationalisation required for Japanese bank recovery, says Fitch
A partial nationalisation of Japan's ailing banks may be the only way to resolve the country's economic woes, with recent efforts by individual institutions to restructure their balance sheets unlikely to lead to an autonomous recovery in the banking…
Algo slaps injunction on SunGard over use of confidential information
Canadian risk management systems provider Algorithmics has slapped an injunction on SunGard aimed at stopping its US-headquartered rival from using confidential information allegedly leaked to SunGard by an ex-Algorithmics employee.
Nationalisation required for Japanese bank recovery, says Fitch
A partial nationalisation of Japan’s ailing banks may be the only way to resolve the country’s economic woes, with recent efforts by individual institutions to restructure their balance sheets unlikely to lead to an autonomous recovery in the banking…
Global banking community poised and ready for QIS 3 op risk results
BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Bankers are eagerly awaiting the results on operational risk from the third Quantitative Impact Study (QIS3).
TriOptima’s swap tear-up service readies for March launch
TriReduce, an interest rate swaps tear-up service developed by Stockholm-headquartered TriOptima, may start its first run in late March, following a delay of about three months due to documentation and technology hook-up issues.
No place for government in energy price reporting or clearing, says Ferc head
Pat Wood, chairman of the US Federal Energy Commission (Ferc), has said he does not believe regulatory agencies should be involved in compiling energy price reporting. He also said the government has no place in suggesting that energy merchants should…
Barclays merges FX/FI prime brokerage
Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the UK’s Barclays Bank, will complete the merger of its foreign exchange and fixed-income prime brokerage businesses by the end of March.