News
Deutsche launches credit index fund
Deutsche Bank launched the Xavex Dynamic Bond Portfolio Fund today. The new credit fund is index-based and indirectly uses the German bank’s over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk for hedging.
ABN Amro expands FX options team
Dutch investment bank ABN Amro has added three traders to its global foreign exchange options business.
Blackbird completes first FpML trades
Blackbird, the North Carolina-based electronic market-place for over-the-counter interest rate derivatives, has completed the first swap trades on an electronic network using Financial Products Markup Language, or FpML. The deals are the first practical…
Booth to head credit trading at RBS
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has hired Stewart Booth as head of credit trading for the capital markets division of RBS Financial Markets. Booth will not only run trading for credit derivatives, but also RBS' investment grade and high-yield businesses.
Eurex to offer Stoxx sector futures in US
Eurex, the Swiss-German derivatives exchange, will start offering Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Bank and Dow Jones Euro Stoxx Bank index futures in the US today after receiving the regulatory go-ahead.
Chubb head calls for more chief risk officers
Dean O’Hare, chairman and chief executive of Chubb Corporation, believes companies without a chief risk officer are not handling risk management effectively. Speaking at the Risk & Insurance Management Society’s annual conference in New Orleans today, O…
Cicada creates risk data management group
Cicada, a US market data distribution systems company, has created a new subsidiary, Cicada Risk, to provide risk data management products. The move marks the company’s first foray into the risk management business.
Chaos reigns at new hedge fund
London-based hedge fund manager HED Capital Management is set to launch a new $200 million fund, dubbed the Beaufort Chaos Fund, by June. HED claims its chaos theory-based strategy obviates the need for derivatives.
Banks support European credit master agreement changes
Investment banks have signalled their support for the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's April 5 decision to drop ‘obligation acceleration’ and ‘repudiation/moratorium’ as credit events for standard default swap transactions in Europe.
Rates Markets Update: US swaps widen on Middle East fears
The US interest rate swaps market broke a trend this week as spreads slowly widened after several weeks of consistent narrowing. Five-year dollar swap spreads widened by 5 basis points to 62bp over Treasuries in the same maturity, while 10-year spreads…
Default levels worst on record, says S&P
The first quarter of 2002 was the worst ever recorded for corporate defaults, said rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
Patsystems to recruit new chief executive
Patsystems, the London-based derivatives trading systems vendor, is actively seeking a replacement for chief executive David Jones, according to company sources.
Non-US companies using derivatives shun FAS 133
Although nearly half of the world’s companies that use derivatives have implemented US accounting standard FAS133, or its international equivalent IAS39, there is little interest in compliance by companies based outside the US, according to a research…
UK’s controversial emissions market sees first trades
The UK’s new government-sponsored greenhouse gas emission trading scheme (ETS) has seen its first trades since its launch on February 2. An anonymous deal was traded yesterday between a global oil major and a large industrial company. London-based staff…
HSBC's Asian head of risk management quits
Azam Mistry, HSBC's Asia-Pacific head of risk management, has left the bank, according to an HSBC official in Hong Kong.
ABN Amro launches Asian absolute return group
ABN Amro has hired Richard Johnson and David Kwan as directors to create a new Asian absolute return strategy group in Hong Kong.
Basel II op risk survey planned for June 1
Global banking regulators hope to issue another survey on June 1 seeking information from banks on their operational losses in order to help with the development of the complex, risk-based Basel II bank capital adequacy Accord, regulators said.
Senate kills proposed OTC energy regulation
The US Senate has blocked a measure to re-regulate the trading of over-the-counter (OTC) energy derivatives. Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic Senator from California, had proposed a bill amendment that would permit the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…
Citi joins State Street's FX Connect liquidity pool
Citigroup, which failed in efforts to create a merger of e-FX portals FXall and Atriax, ahead of Atriax's collapse late last week, has joined State Street's FX Connect as a liquidity provider.
Deutsche Bank eyes Canadian energy market
Deutsche Bank has expanded its energy derivatives trading business by opening a Calgary office.
Basel II securitisation paper planned for October
Global banking regulators plan to issue on October 1 a working paper on the treatment of asset securitisation in the Basel II banking Accord, one of the issues that prompted its delay until late 2006.
Credit Markets Update: HVB spreads up on Kirch and other concerns
Subordinate protection costs on Munich-based HypoVereinsbank (HVB) surged 12 basis points briefly today, as it became the latest financial institution dragged into Kirch Media's bankruptcy. Within 30 minutes of trading, senior protection on HVB traded at…
CME and GSCC team to offer eurodollar futures cross-margining
Clearing members of both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Government Securities Clearing Corporation (GSCC) can start cross-margining buy-sell and repo US government securities against eurodollar futures and options from April 12.
Mitsui Sumitomo builds unemployment rate derivatives
Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance plans to develop derivatives linked to unemployment rates in Japan as a means for companies to hedge their exposures to large fluctuations in domestic unemployment rates.