Infrastructure
Q1 scapegoats: energy and weather
Risk’s second quarterly round-up of corporate risk disclosures provides some evidence that companies are becoming more forthcoming. But losses on hedgeable exposures, especially energy and weather, continued to plague many
Esops: time to hedge?
With share prices depressed, now seems a good time for companies with large employee stock option plans to hedge them. Why aren’t corporate treasurers acting?
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
An aggressive agenda
Dresdner’s chief risk officer, Heinrich Linz, is masterminding a credit revolution at the German bank.
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
Totem launches valuation system to help energy traders
Totem Market Valuations, the London-based valuation clearinghouse, has launched a new service for energy traders. Totem’s energy derivatives valuation service is designed to give traders in over-the-counter energy contracts a market price gleaned from a…
Totem widens equity derivative valuation service
Totem Market Valuations, the London-based over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives valuation specialist, is to expand its service to include floored cliquet options this month.
NAB offers soft commodity hedging in Australia
National Australia Bank (NAB) has launched a range of soft commodity hedging products to cater for the country's large agricultural sector.
Credit Markets Update: Williams hit due to energy investigation
Continued federal enquiries and a credit downgrade for US energy trader and gas pipeline operator Williams caused five-year debt protection spreads on the company to widen a further 30 basis points this week, after its spreads swelled 200bp last week and…
JP Morgan sees mixed results in Risk ’s 2002 end-user derivatives rankings
JP Morgan Chase, the world’s largest derivatives house, managed only a fourth-place position in the non-financial companies section of Risk ’s 2002 end-user derivatives rankings. But the US financial group dominated the asset management rankings, with a…
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…
Taking a new career track
CDO managers
The roads to currency overlay
Forex risk
Making the connection
Front-office systems
S&P and LoanX to provide pricing service for illiquid leveraged loans
Rating agency Standard & Poor's and LoanX, an online pricing service for syndicated loans, plan to roll out a new service for pricing the illiquid end of the leveraged loan market by the fourth quarter. The move is important because the US Securities and…
Swiss Re signs up for updated RMS weather trading system
Swiss Re Financial Products (SRFP) has licensed an updated weather risk trading system developed by Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the California-based technology and data firm.
Proper procedures
Credit Risk