Foreign exchange
Researching the insurance market
'Popularity be damned' says Boston Partners
Icap recovers after WTC attacks
Icap, the word’s largest inter-dealer broker, says that a busy period for its interest rate swaps business during October and November, due to economic uncertainty and volatile interest rates across the globe, helped spur a 22% rise in global revenues,…
Munich Re sees billion dollar loss in third quarter
Munich Re, the reinsurance group, today reported a euro1.2 billion ($1.06 billion) loss for the third quarter. This was mainly due to the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, said the German firm.
Jim Oliff appointed COO of FFastFill
Jim Oliff, second vice chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), has been appointed chief operating officer of online risk software vendor FFastFill.
Danaharta launches Malaysia’s first CLO
Malaysia’s national asset management company Pengurusan Danaharta Nasional Berhad (Danaharta), which is targted at resolving the country’s non-performing loan problem, has issued its first asset-backed securitisation (ABS) worth $81.6 million.
Prime brokerage on Currenex by close of year
Currenex, the online global currency exchange, will make available prime brokerage services to members of its FXtrades forex platform by the close of 2001, according to Lori Mirek, the firm’s New York-based president and chief executive officer.
Reliant to launch new hybrid weather-energy swap
Houston-based Reliant Energy appears to be attempting to take the mantle of industry innovator from troubled Enron by launching a new US natural gas index and associated hybrid swap contract that integrates energy and weather risk – the weather-sensitive…
Indosuez in equity derivatives reorganisation
Credit Agricole Indosuez’s equity arm, CAI Equities, plans to introduce a single trading platform as part of its plans to integrate its global trading and derivatives operations. As a result, the firm's WI Carr Securities Asian derivatives team will…
Raft to commercialise DrKW's op risk system
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW), the investment banking arm of Germany's Dresdner Bank, and Raft International, the component-based software provider to the financial services industry, have jointly developed and deployed Radar, a near real-time…
OpenLink establishes Berlin office
OpenLink, a US-based financial and energy trading risk management solution provider, plans to set up an office in Berlin, in order to consolidate its eastern European client base and better serve central European clients.
RiskMetrics and S&P integrate credit products
New York-based risk management software and research firm RiskMetrics has teamed up with Standard & Poor's Risk Solutions, the credit risk arm of rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P), to integrate two of their credit risk products.
KWI and Sapient team to offer energy risk management
London-based energy trading and risk management systems provider KWI has teamed with technology consulting firm Sapient to jointly market their products to the energy industry.
SuperDerivatives adds barrier options for FX
Online FX options pricing vendor SuperDerivatives has added European-style knock-out and knock-in options to its pricing system.
SunGard creates real-time credit risk analytics
SunGard Trading and Risk Solutions, a unit of US technology provider SunGard, has built a new credit tool that can offer traders access to virtually real-time risk exposures.
Fitch sets up risk management subsidiary
Rating agency Fitch has set up Fitch Risk Management(FRM) to provide analytical risk management tools and services to financial institutions, investors and regulatory bodies throughout the US and Europe.
TFS-Icap teams up with Volbroker
Joint venture interdealer FX options voice broker TFS-Icap has struck a deal with bank-owned trading platform Volbroker to integrate Volbroker's electronic capabilities into TFS-Icap.
Tremont, RiskMetrics to improve hedge fund risk reporting
Tremont Advisers, the global provider of hedge fund investment management services, has established a joint venture with RiskMetrics, which provides financial analytics, benchmark risk measurement and wealth management tools. The two companies are…
Cessation of 30-year Treasury bonds raises dealer fears
The decision last week by the US Treasury to stop issuing 30-year bonds caused a significant amount of activity in the markets, as traders sought to adjust to the surprise news. Spreads in 30-year US dollar interest rate swaps widened by 12 basis points…
Unresolved Basel II issues include total capital and economic impact, says UK central banker
OXFORD, ENGLAND - The question of what should be the appropriate overall level of protective capital in the world’s banking system remains one of the unresolved issues of the Basel II banking accord, said deputy Bank of England governor David Clementi…
Banks still nervous about gross income as an op risk indicator
BASEL - Banks seem pleased with many aspects of the recent working paper on operational risk issued by global banking regulators, but are still nervous about some of the cross-border anomalies that could be thrown up by the use of gross income as a risk…
Basel regulators may scrap 90% IRB floor for credit risk
Global banking regulators will soon abandon their controversial 90%, two-year floor on the benefit banks could reap by moving to the advanced internal ratings based (IRB) technique for calculating capital charges against credit risk under the Basel II…
DrKW and Raft establish new op risk management standard
Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) and Raft International, the component-based software provider to the financial services industry, have jointly developed and deployed Radar, a near real-time global operational risk management…
Op risk capital charge difficult to devise in imperfect Basel II, says US central banker
NEW YORK - The lack of an agreed methodology and credible loss data has made it extremely difficult to devise an operational capital risk charge under the terms of the Basel II bank capital accord, a senior US central banker acknowledged in mid-October.
Basel II would mean banks less able to deal with NY attacks, US Senate told
WASHINGTON - The operational risk capital charge proposed by global banking regulators would create a "perverse incentive" against banks taking measures to cope with operational hazards such as the September 11 attacks in New York, the US Senate’s…