News
China opens forex market
A flurry of overseas banks have received approval from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to conduct foreign currency business with Chinese corporate and individual customers – the first tangible deregulation of the financial market since China’s signing…
ICE aims to sell energy and metals market data
The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the Atlanta-based electronic commodity and derivatives market, aims to sell price data and other information services to the energy and metals markets.
Prebon backs coal growth
Prebon Energy, the New Jersey brokerage firm that specialises in physical and financial energy products, has opened a coal desk.
Korea drives Asian option growth
Turnover in equity index contracts rose by 40% at Asian exchanges in the fourth quarter of last year, according to the latest quarterly report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The Switzerland-based banking body pointed to the rapid…
Goldman signs up Imagine for prime brokerage
Goldman Sachs is to offer Imagine Software's ASP risk management and trading services to clients of its prime brokerage unit, GSI Prime Brokerage, formalising a partnership begun last year in which GSI clients started using the Imagine product.
FASB head warns Congress on too much interference
Edmund Jenkins, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), has warned Congress not to take its post-Enron zeal for market regulation too far. He was responding to proposed legislation that would give the US Securities and Exchange…
AIB fraud involved fake entries in SunGard's Devon
Allied Irish Banks' John Rusnak, the trader accused of concealing $691 million in foreign exchange losses over five years, inputted false trades into SunGard's Devon System, which was used to process prime-brokerage accounts at Allfirst Financial, the…
Citi traders sacked as Allfirst probe continues
Citigroup this week dismissed two traders linked to the Allfirst trading losses, as the investigation into rogue trader John Rusnak’s counterparties continued.
IMF issues credit derivatives warning
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes the lack of financial disclosure and transparency in the credit derivatives market has the potential to increase market risk, as participants find it more difficult to gauge the depth of credit deterioration…
IntesaBCI puts weather risk on hold
IntesaBCI has shelved its plans to trade weather derivatives this year, in a move likely to prompt closer scrutiny of weather trading performance at other banks.
UK regulator disappointed at latest Basel II delay
Britain’s principal financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), was “a little disappointed” at the latest delays to the Basel II banking Accord, a senior FSA official said today.
No compromise from Feinstein on energy bill
Californian Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein and Texan Republican Senator Phil Gramm have failed to reach a compromise over Feinstein’s proposed energy bill, which could give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) authority on over-the-counter …
Dynegy joins TradeSpark online trading platform
Houston-based energy company Dynegy has become a partner in TradeSpark, the online energy trading platform. The firm has linked its own proprietary trading system, Dynegy Direct, to TradeSpark as part of the deal.
Blundell new CME managing director in Europe
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has named Mark Blundell as managing director, CME Europe, based in London.
RiskMetrics launches visual risk service
New York-based technology firm RiskMetrics has developed a new visual tool that allows investors to see stock volatility at a glance. The Risk Map of the Market, as the new service is known, plots both the Standard & Poor’s index and the Nasdaq 100 index…
UBS increases use of credit derivatives
Swiss investment bank UBS Warburg hedged around 30% of its corporate and institutional lending in 2001 using credit derivatives and other credit instruments. The inceased focus on credit risk follows the record number of global corporate defaults in 2001.
UK regulator will not shoe-horn insurers into banking regime
UK financial supervisors do not intend to 'shoe-horn' insurance companies into a regulatory regime designed for banks, a senior regulator said today.
CMXchange and Opt4Derivatives partner for OTC metals trading
Illinois-based Commodities Management Exchange (CMXchange), an electronic metals exchange, and Berkeley-based technology firm Opt4Derivatives are to launch CMXflexclear, an electronic market-place for trading and matching over-the-counter (OTC)…
Moody's extends RiskCalc coverage to UK
Moody's Risk Management Services (MRMS) has added non-financial private UK company data to its Web-based default estimator tool, Moody's RiskCalc.
LeBlanc leaves DrKW to head risk management at Barclays
Robert LeBlanc has joined Barclays Capital as its new head of risk management, after less than a year at German rival Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW). Both banks declined to comment on the move.
EU postpones new bank rules following Basel II delay
The European Commission has postponed the coming into effect of its own plans for risk-based bank regulation by at least a year, following the further delay to the controversial Basel II bank Accord, Commission officials said.
Rusnak's fraudulent trading strategy revealed
The independent report commissioned by Allied Irish Banks, carried out by US banking specialist Eugene Ludwig, details how former Allfirst foreign exchange trader John Rusnak managed to hide his forex trading losses with the creation of bogus options…
SunGard acquires Kronos Software
Pennsylvania-based technology firm SunGard Trading and Risk Systems has acquired London-based Kronos Software, the real-time risk management and trading solutions provider.
Macquarie issues dividend warrants in Hong Kong
Macquarie Equities Asia, a division of Australia’s Macquarie Bank, has launched a new warrant product into the Hong Kong market. Called the dividend accumulator warrant, it pays investors dividends equal to the underlying share over the life of the…