News
Nymex names head of new strategy department
John D’Agostino will head up a new department at the New York Mercantile Exchange, which will focus on strategic options for expansion and growth. The exchange has promoted D’Agostino to vice-president of strategy and business development from manager…
BNP restructures European credit research
BNP Paribas, the French banking group, has restructured its credit research division after three members were poached by Lehman Brothers in September.
KIDB-Icap gets approval to launch Korean interdealer broking business
Icap, the world’s largest interdealer broker, said its Korean joint venture KIDB-Icap has received final approval from the Ministry of Finance and Economy to launch a new interdealer broking business.
Basel II revised default correlation values reflect industry experience, says Fitch
Basel II revised credit card default correlation values will be crucial guidelines to credit portfolio analysis under the IRB approach, says Fitch Ratings, a rating agency based in New York.
Deutsche gets China derivatives licence
Deutsche Bank has become the latest institution to gain a licence to trade derivatives onshore in China. A Deutsche official in Singapore told RiskNews that the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) gave the German bank the go-ahead yesterday.
Barclays boosts Asian credit team
Barclays Capital has continued its drive to boost its Asian credit derivatives business with another new hire in Hong Kong. William Pang joined the bank yesterday as director of Asian credit derivatives with responsibility for market risk.
Cash margin squeeze benefits Japan forex derivatives dealers
Derivatives dealers in Japan are in demand, as spread compression in vanilla foreign exchange has prompted foreign banks to look elsewhere for margin.
Totem adds to its interest rate valuations service
Totem Market Valuations, a provider of over-the-counter derivatives price information, is to expand its interest rate derivatives pricing service to include Swiss francs, Hong Kong dollars and Korean won. The products covered will be interest rate…
Front teams with NIWS to offer Arena in Japan
Front Capital Systems, an operating unit of SunGard, has begun marketing a localised version of Front Arena's treasury trading and back-office solution to regional banks in Japan through a distribution agreement with NIWS, a Tokyo-based business server…
Remove barriers to group-wide Know Your Customer standards, urges Basel Committee
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has called on all national jurisdictions to remove legal restrictions that impede effective consolidated Know Your Customer (KYC) risk management processes, and facilitate the process by providing an appropriate…
Basel II is a bonus for economic stability, says Greenspan
Better management of banking risk and new rules on capital hold the promise of a stronger banking system that will contribute to economic growth, according to US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan.
Emerging market banks are catching up on op risk management
Banks in Asia and Latin America are increasing efforts to catch up with their European and North American counterparts in developing high-quality operational risk management programmes, according to Ali Samad-Khan, president of the newly formed…
Deutsche sues JP Morgan Chase over credit team defections
Deutsche Bank has filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase and two of the German bank's former employees following the defection of senior Deutsche Bank staff to the US bank more than a month ago.
Nymex ends open-outcry trading of PJM monthly power futures
The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) will move daytime trading of the PJM monthly electricity futures contract to ClearPort, its internet-based system, from the open-outcry trading floor on November 1.
Northern Trust selects Fitch Risk operational risk software
Northern Trust, a Chicago-based global custody and investment management group, has chosen Fitch Risk’s OpVar software suite and its data offerings, which manage quantitative and qualitative operational risk. The move comes at the expense of risk…
Deutsche Bank hires MBS group heads
Deutsche Bank has hired Neil Ahuja and John Roach as head of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and mortgage derivatives trading, respectively.
GFI hires five traders to offer dry freight trading
Inter-dealer broker GFI has hired five brokers to start offering dry freight derivatives. The service will complement the company’s commodities trading activities, particularly coal.
Allegheny Energy makes $152m from share sale
Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy has sold 10 million shares for $151.5 million to four institutional investors. The company intends to use the proceeds to reduce debt as part of its plan to repay $1.5 billion in debt by the end of 2005.
Edison Mission Energy sells stake in NZ utility
California-based Edison Mission Energy has completed the sale of its 51.2% stake in New Zealand-based Contact Energy to Origin Energy New Zealand. Origin paid NZ$1.1 billion ($739 million) in cash and assumed NZ$535 million ($359 million) in debt to take…
Shell completes sale of refined products pipelines
Shell Oil Products US has sold its major refined oil products pipeline systems to asset acquisition companies for $1 billion. Oklahoma-based Magellan Midstream Partners has paid $490 million for the mid-continent system, while Pennsylvania-based Buckeye…
Evolution starts brokering US natural gas and power
US coal and emissions broker Evolution Markets has expanded its services to include over-the-counter (OTC) brokerage services for North American natural gas and power. Jeff Rosenzweig has joined as managing director of the new gas and power desk, and…
CSFB/Tremont launches sector invest indexes
Hedge fund index provider Credit Suisse First Boston Tremont Index has launched 10 new investable hedge fund indexes, collectively called the CSFB/Tremont sector invest indexes, in response to “widespread investor demand”, the company said in a statement.
JP Morgan Chase launches Asian currency index
JP Morgan Chase and market data vendor Bloomberg have teamed up to launch a tradable index of currencies from Asian emerging markets.
Commerzbank hires forex options trader
Commerzbank Securities in New York has hired Carmine Ricciardi as a senior foreign exchange options trader.