News
SocGen, Citi in first North American warrants push
Citibank and Société Générale are set to sell the first warrants to the North American retail market when they start trading them via the Bourse de Montréal, Canada’s financial derivatives exchange, on Monday.
OpVantage and Raft integrate products
Operational risk software and data vendors Raft International and OpVantage plan to integrate Raft Radar and OpVar, their respective op risk applications, in a collaboration that will see the global delivery of joint products and services to financial…
I-Wex backs hourly data to boost weather market
I-Wex, a UK-based data provider, has launched QuantWeather.com, an online platform for historical weather data. Speaking at the product’s launch, at Risk ’s WeatherRisk 2002 conference in New York, Nick Mooney, I-Wex’s chief executive, claimed…
Enron's trading operations under spotlight at Senate hearing
The US Senate hearing on the collapse of Enron opened yesterday with expert testimony urging the focus of investigations to fall more on the firm’s derivatives trading operations.
Weather derivatives set for emerging markets
A joint venture between the World Bank and US energy company Aquila is set to broaden the growing weather derivatives sector into emerging markets for the first time.
Platts launches US coal derivatives index
Platts, the energy information business and part of McGraw-Hill, has launched a series of coal derivatives indexes in the US to help market participants to price contracts in this developing area of the energy markets.
Icor sees a trade a day in first week
Icor Brokerage, an over-the-counter electronic forex options trading platform, has seen a trade a day since it was finally launched in Asia on January 16 – more than a year after its initial schedule.
Lehman snaps up CSFB barrier options team
US investment bank Lehman Brothers has lured a 15-person equity barrier options team from rival Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) as part of its bid to boost its equity derivatives operations.
Algorithmics promotes Zerbs to COO
Canadian risk software and systems provider Algorithmics has promoted Michael Zerbs, formerly vice-president of research and product marketing, to chief operating officer - a newly created position.
PRMIA unveils interim board
The nascent Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA), set up by a raft of disgruntled former Global Association of Risk Professionals' (Garp) ex-regional heads, has appointed an interim board.
Omgeo expands straight-through processing service
Omgeo, the global trade management services provider, said 17 firms had signed up to its global straight-through processing platform, Omgeo Central Trade Manager (CTM), a central matching product for domestic and cross-border trades.
LCH sees notionals hit €168 trillion
Central counterparty the London Clearing House (LCH) reported record volumes and notionals last year, seeing contracts cleared up by 40% to 315 million, worth a notional value of €168.13 trillion.
Barclays Capital to boost derivatives effort in Mexico
Barclays Capital, the investment banking unit of the UK's Barclays, has hired Lorenzo Gonzalez Bosco from Bank of America to increase its derivatives origination, syndicated credits and bonds issuance in Mexico.
Euronext expands weather potential
Euronext is launching six weather indexes for France, called 'NextWeather', as a first step to offering exchange-traded weather derivatives contracts in continental Europe next year.
Iskander to head OTC structuring at Deutsche
Deutsche Bank has hired Michel Iskander to head its over-the-counter derivatives structuring business. He will manage a team of about 10 people in the newly created position. He will report to Toshio Okumura, head of the structured products group, and be…
SunGard offers risk analysis for STN users
SunGard Trading and Risk Systems, a unit of US financial services supplier SunGard, will offer users of SunGard Transaction Network (STN) Treasury - an online trading platform for forex and money markets - on-demand risk analysis and reporting through…
Patsystems to renegotiate connectivity contracts
Patsystems, the London-based independent software vendor (ISV), will renegotiate a 'substantial' number of unprofitable contracts with clients in its latest strategic review.
Icor launches electronic options broking
Icor Brokerage has launched its online brokerage service for forex options in the Asia-Pacific region, where 14 banks are already hooked up to trade over the system. Six additional Asian banks are set to go live next month.
Forex spot and futures platform EBS Trader goes live
The EBS Partnership today goes live with EBS Trader, its internet-delivered conversational direct-dealing system for spot and forwards foreign exchange, company officials told RiskNews ' sister publication FX Week . The service will compete directly with…
Union Pacific to use Kiodex for fuel risk management
Union Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of major American transportation company Union Pacific Corporation, has selected Kiodex Risk Workbench to manage its earnings exposure to energy price risk.
ICE names Spencer as CFO
Atlanta-based commodities exchange, the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), has made Richard Spencer its chief financial officer, a newly created role. ICE has also created an office of the chairman to manage the exchange’s rapid growth. The office of the…
Normandy trims hedging book as Newmont closes in
Australia’s largest gold company, Normandy Mining - the subject of a bidding war by two of the world’s largest gold producers, AngloGold and Newmont Mining – has unwound a large part of its forward hedging book, catching some dealers by surprise.
Insurers call for greater underwriting discipline
Many insurance and reinsurance companies face ruin unless there is a fundamental shift towards correlating risk management with underwriting premiums, according to a panel of insurance industry chief executives at the Property/Casualty Joint Industry…
Enron exposure hurts JP Morgan credit position
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has placed JP Morgan Chase on negative ratings outlook following the financial institution’s unveiling of a $322 million loss in fourth-quarter 2001, in part caused by its exposure to failed US energy company Enron.