Structured products
Japan credit market update: technology sector spreads hit by Nasdaq slump
Credit default swap spreads on Japanese technology names were wider this week, in part due to the decline in the technology-heavy Nasdaq equity market in the US but also due to a technical correction caused by range-bound trading, dealers said.
Barep and JP Morgan close $215 million emerging market CDO
Paris-based alternative investment fund Barep Asset Management, a wholly-owned unit of French banking group Société Générale and JP Morgan Securities, has closed a $216.6 million collateralised debt obligation (CDO) backed by a revolving pool of US…
Increased regulation for OTC commodities is unnecessary, claims Isda
Increased regulation for the over-the-counter (OTC) commodity derivatives market designed to protect investors is unnecessary, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda). The European Commission is proposing regulation of…
S&P set to change BT debt outlook to stable from negative, says BT employee
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s is set to raise British Telecom’s (BT's) A- rating from ‘negative outlook’ to ‘stable outlook’, said a senior BT employee late yesterday.
DrKW hires Kobashi in Tokyo to offer risk management services to pensions funds
Germany’s Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has hired Yoshikazu Kobashi from Morgan Stanley Japan to oversee the bank’s corporates and pensions marketing in Japan. Kobashi’s team will offer risk management solutions to corporates and pensions,…
KDB sets up credit derivatives desk in Seoul
The Korea Development Bank (KDB) has established a credit derivatives desk following an internal reorganisation of the bank's derivatives operations and in response to the growing credit derivatives market in the country, said Hae-Geun Chung, head of the…
Swiss Re closes first round of catastrophe risk securitisation
Swiss Re Capital Markets has closed the first round of an innovative $2 billion natural catastrophe risk securitisation programme. The multi-peril, multi-year programme is known as Pioneer 2002, according to a catastrophe risk investor, who wished to…
Aquila cuts energy staff, seeks partner
US energy company Aquila, which announced plans to wind down its energy derivatives trading book yesterday, took a large step towards doing so today by letting go 44% of its Merchant Services energy risk management workforce worldwide, including 71 of…
Goldman study: S&P 500 volatility rockets in Q2
Single-stock and index volatility has shot up since the end of the first quarter of 2002, according to research by investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Credit Markets Update: European spreads drift wider due to negative sentiment
Credit default swap spreads in Europe drifted gradually wider during the week, reacting to weakness in the equity markets and general economic pessimism. Five-year debt protection spreads were 30 to 40 basis points wider on European telecoms, 3-8bp wider…
Japan Credit Market Update: Investors run for Sumitomo cover ahead of jumbo debt offer
The banking and electronic sectors were the most traded in Japan’s credit default swap market this week, driven by a new jumbo subordinated debt offer from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and continued interest in the electronics sector.
Update: Fitch calls for notching debate
Fitch Ratings today called for an open forum debate on the practice of collateralised debt obligation notching. Fitch released a report yesterday slamming its rival Moody’s for notching bonds in CDOs that Moody’s did not originally rate. Fitch claims the…
Fitch hits back at Moody's in CDO ratings row
Rating agency Fitch moved to defend its standing in the collateralised debt obligation (CDO) rating market by slating the ‘notching’ practices used by rival rating agency Moody’s in a formal report yesterday.
JP Morgan scoops Credit magazine's credit derivatives strategy research award
JP Morgan Chase has taken the top ranking in Credit magazine's credit derivatives strategy research survey, receiving almost twice as many nominations as the second ranked bank, Morgan Stanley. Credit is a sister publication to RiskNews .
Risk 2002 USA: Convertible arb funds could face liquidity risk concerns, says Soros Fund risk head
The rash of new convertible arbitrage funds in the market has created concerns about liquidity risk problems, according to Peruvemba Satish, director of risk management and reporting at Soros Fund Management in New York.
BMA and IIF issue new proposals to protect sovereign debt investors
The heads of six major financial bodies, including the Bond Market Association (BMA) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF), have issued a list of principles to enhance creditor protection in cases of sovereign debt restructuring.
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…
Risk 2002 USA: credit risk transfer under the spotlight
Robin Lenna - head of portfolio management at FleetBoston Financial - highlighted the important role of insurers in the credit risk transfer market at the Risk 2002 USA conference in Boston today, while Carl Groth - a director at Willis Structured…
IAIS credit risk transfer investigation sees worrying trends
The Basel-based International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), which represents insurance supervisory authorities of some 100 jurisdictions, said it is concerned that some insurance companies active in the $1 trillion credit derivatives…
Credit Lyonnais prepares Asian-flavoured arbitrage synthetic CDO
France’s Credit Lyonnais Securities is getting ready to launch a global arbitrage synthetic collateralised debt obligation (CDO) within a month, according to the bank’s head of Japan investment banking and ex-Japan Asian debt capital markets, Jean-Marc…
Integrated credit risk management – are you ready?
Consolidating data across fragmented systems is crucial for integrated credit risk management – but it is not the whole story. In the first of four columns on the subject, David Rowe argues that organisational readiness is a more amorphous but equally…
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…
Front in new sales drive
Stockholm-based trading and risk management technology provider Front Capital Systems, an operating unit of SunGard Trading Systems, has made two key sales appointments to support the company’s global expansion. Front has recruited Stephen Butcher to…