News
Commodities reshuffle at Morgan Stanley as Shapiro retires
Investment bank Morgan Stanley has reshuffled its commodity department, with head of commodities John Shapiro retiring.
Indianapolis hedges against escalating fuel prices
A fuel hedge and savings programme has netted the US city of Indianapolis over $39,000 during the month of June, according to a press release from the Mayor’s office.
Quant Congress: Models not to blame for stat arb crisis
Quantitative investment models were not responsible for the ructions in the statistical arbitrage sector in August 2007 and would, in fact, have proved extremely profitable should funds have weathered the storm, delegates at Quant Congress USA heard…
CFTC enforcement head returns to private sector
Gregory Mocek, head of the enforcement division at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has resigned to return to private practice.
Quant Congress: Bear Stearns breached structured credit limits, says former CRO
Defunct securities dealer Bear Stearns persistently breached its own internal limits governing how much structured credit paper the firm could hold on balance sheet in the months leading up to its collapse, the firm’s former head of risk management for…
World Bank tests water with Malawi drought risk trade
The World Bank will close a weather derivatives trade by October 1, a move intended to hedge the Malawian government against the financial risk of severe or catastrophic drought.
SEC says rating agencies failed to manage conflicts of interest
Daily news headlines
€6 billion price tag outweighs benefits of PSD, says study
Daily news headlines
T Boone launches wind power plan
Texas oilman T Boone Pickens has launched a plan to address the United States’ dependence on foreign oil by aiming to generate at least 20% of the nation’s energy supply through wind power.
Triple Point acquires ROME
Risk management software provider Triple Point has acquired credit risk management provider ROME.
Jet fuel futures contract takes off at MCX
Mumbai, India-based Multi-Commodities Exchange (MCX) has begun trading jet fuel futures contracts to help Indian airlines and refineries hedge against rising crude oil prices.
Liffe to clear credit derivatives in Q4
London-based derivatives exchange Liffe will begin clearing contracts linked to the Markit iTraxx indexes of European credit default swaps (CDSs) during the fourth quarter of 2008.
Q&A: Regulator calls for greater insurance against liquidity risk
Arthur Angulo, senior vice-president of banking supervision at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and co-chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Working Group on Liquidity, talks to Risk about recent initiatives to improve liquidity risk…
US mortgage lender closes doors after capital warning
Indymac Bancorp, one of the largest mortgage providers in the US, closed its doors to new business and announced deep job cuts yesterday, blaming the continuing crisis in the mortgage-backed securities market.
New credit heads at GFI
Credit derivatives brokerage GFI has named two new senior managers at its New York office.
Quant Congress: Gaussian copula "failing dramatically" in pricing CDOs
Gaussian copula distribution models are an overly simplistic and inadequate means of valuing tranches of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and other structured products, warned a senior quant yesterday.
Financial turmoil reports issued by the CGFS
Daily news headlines
SEC streamlines rules for self-regulation
Daily news headlines
McCreevy vows to regulate credit rating agencies
Daily news headlines
Rahul Sen to join BlackRock in Singapore
Rahul Sen, previously first vice-president of home loans risk management at Washington Mutual in Seattle, is moving to join asset manager BlackRock in Singapore.
New lobby group to defend securitisation markets
As pressure for reform in the securitisation market grows, three regional industry lobbying groups - the American Securitisation Forum (ASF), the European Securitisation Forum (ESF) and the Securities Industry and Futures Markets Association (Sifma) -…
New York Fed appoints Krieger to lead new credit risk management group
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has created a new payments policy and credit risk management group. The bank has appointed Sandra Krieger to lead it, and she will also become a member of the bank’s management committee.
ABS new issuance increases 158%
Asset-backed securities (ABS) issuance for the second quarter has increased 158% compared with the first quarter, according to London-based data provider Xtrakter.
More writedowns coming at UBS
UBS will report more writedowns in its second-quarter results, due on August 12, the Swiss bank warned today.