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The first central clearing houses for credit default swaps were expected to start business in December, but regulatory hold-ups delayed the launch in the US and are also causing issues in Europe. Although four ventures are planned, some dealers expect…
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Breath of Liffe
Amid fierce competition and regulatory scrutiny, the combined initiative by derivatives exchange Liffe and clearing house LCH.Clearnet for clearing credit default swaps was launched on December 22. Will the two companies have a first-mover advantage? By…
Buy-side backlash
Trading costs
Fiscal strain poses challenges for monolines
Continuing fiscal strain has heightened concerns over the fate of the new municipal monoline bond insurers.
FOMC holds rates as spectre of quantitative easing looms
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has kept its target for US interest rates at between 0-25 basis points as the Federal Reserve reiterated its commitment to use new tools to fight the worsening economic downturn.
Quantitative tests pointed to Madoff fraud, says Riskdata
Sophisticated investors expressed shock at the alleged $50 billion fraud by New York-based broker and fund manager Bernard Madoff, yet even relatively simple quantitative analysis should have raised red flags, according to research by London-based…
Update: Liquidity check goes live on Scoach
Scoach has launched a new tool for investors to check the quality of market makers for listed structured products online. The system, which is called Quote Quality Metrics (QQM), has been introduced by the Swiss structured products exchange to inject…
Cash-settlement auctions working, says Isda
The auction process for cash-settling credit derivatives trades has been tested recently but is working well, said Bob Pickel, chief executive of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, at a symposium held by the organisation in New York on…
UBS exits exotic structured products business in FICC
UBS is fully exiting its exotic structured products business within its fixed income, commodities and currencies (FICC) division, the bank has confirmed. As part of the restructuring, four senior managing directors have left the bank: Todd Morakis, head…
S&P unveils CDS indexes
Index provider Standard & Poor's Index Services (S&P) has launched three US credit default swap (CDS) indexes designed to evaluate the performance of the credit derivatives market.
Buy-side firms scramble to meet novation deadline
Derivatives technology vendors have reported a significant upturn in activity among buy-side firms, looking to meet a February 28 deadline for processing all credit derivatives novation consents through electronic platforms.
King lays out details of Bank of England debt purchases
The Bank of England will start to buy up corporate debt and commercial paper within the next few weeks, governor Mervyn King announced last night.