News
Shell agrees $150 million fine over reserves scandal, releases interim results
Royal Dutch/Shell Group looks set to pay $150 million in civil penalties and spend $5 million on developing an internal compliance programme, following its recent overstatement of reserves. The energy giant has agreed in principle with the UK Financial…
Independent valuation service for OTC derivatives launched
JP Morgan Investor Services (JPMIS), part of JP Morgan Chase, has launched an independent valuation service for over-the-counter derivatives.
Isda master confirmation to include variance swaps
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, a trade body, has extended its 2004 Americas inter-dealer equity derivatives master confirmation to include confirmation details on variance swaps.
DrKW forms energy trading business
Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has formed a London-based energy trading business, headed by Neil Rothwell.
Bear supplies Optima with risk system
Bear Measurerisk, a technology subsidiary of Bear Stearns Asset Management, is to supply Optima Fund Management with risk monitoring and reporting systems.
DrKW forms energy trading business
Investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has formed a London-based energy trading business, headed by Neil Rothwell.
Former CFO of JP Morgan Investment Management joins Third Point
Jeffrey Trongone, formerly chief financial officer (CFO) and managing director of JP Morgan’s asset management business, has joined Third Point Management Company, a New York-based alternative investment firm with $1.3 billion in assets under management.
Risk managers not playing their strategic part, says survey
The risk management groups within most financial services companies do not have much input into strategic decision-making, according to a survey.
StanChart appoints new global head of rates and forex
Mike Bass, Standard Chartered’s head of interest rate derivatives, has been promoted to global head of rates and foreign exchange.
Swapstream market-makers raise quote size to €800m
The four banks making markets on electronic interest rate swaps trading platform Swapstream have raised their quote sizes from around €100 million to €200 million apiece.
AIB repays €26 million for overcharging
Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is repaying €26 million ($32 million) it overcharged clients on 3 million foreign exchange deals, after a regulator slammed the bank in a report last week, reports RiskNews’ sister publication, FX Week .
Dow Jones iTraxx CDS indexes launched for Asia, Australia and Japan
A new series of Asian credit default swaps (CDS) indexes have been launched today in Asia, Australia and Japan, combining the dealers behind the Dow Jones Trac-x, iBoxx and CJ 50 indexes under a single index umbrella.
Evolution looks west with Unger
Evolution Markets is expanding to provide brokerage services to the California emissions trading markets. Leading the company’s efforts in San Francisco is Samantha Unger, one of the California emissions markets’ most experienced brokers.
BNP closes revolving credit facility for Sempra Energy Trading
French bank BNP Paribas has closed a $1 billion multicurrency secured revolving credit facility for four borrowers forming part of Sempra Energy Trading, the commodity-trading unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy.
Brown-Hruska to serve as CFTC acting chairman
Sharon Brown-Hruska has been appointed by US president George Bush to serve as acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Brown-Hruska was previously a CFTC commissioner and will take over the duties of outgoing chairman, James…
RiskMetrics’ re-capitalisation tops venture capital deal table
A cash injection into RiskMetrics Group of $122 million by private equity investors last month was the largest venture capital deal of the second quarter.
China's Bank of Communications gets approval for derivatives business
The Bank of Communications said it has received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission to start financial derivatives business.
Gupta to co-head credit trading at RBS
Sanjeev Gupta, formerly a managing director for credit derivatives at Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), has come out of retirement to help spearhead the build-up of Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) integrated credit business in the US.
BNZ enters energy trading
The Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) has launched an energy risk management desk. The plan is to target the bank’s corporate client base who need hedging solutions for their energy, base metals and agricultural commodities exposures, said Wayne Jolly, BNZ’s…
Nomura creates energy capital markets group
Japanese bank Nomura has created an energy capital markets group based in New York and London. The group will focus on the strategic acquisition of assets and financing of investments in energy and related infrastructure.
Nymex and Tiffe consider weather derivatives
Both the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and The Tokyo International Financial Futures Exchange (Tiffe) are considering launching weather contracts.
ABN Amro launches MiniSwaps contracts
ABN Amro has launched miniature versions of interest rate swaps contracts targeted at companies, fund managers and institutions that are prevented from trading derivatives for regulatory or other reasons.
HKMA to rule out AMA approach
Hong Kong's banking regulator, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), will not allow the territory's banks to use the advanced measurement approaches (AMA) for measuring operational risk when Basel II is implemented from the end of 2006.
Schachter quits Sac for BAM
Barry Schachter, a prominent name in the financial engineering industry, has left his role as head of risk management at $4 billion hedge fund Sac Capital Advisors to join rival Balyasny Asset Management (BAM).