JP Morgan
Barclays hires two for Latin America credit trading
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays Bank, has hired Michael McGowan and Ronaldo Lyrio as directors of credit trading for Latin America, as part of the bank’s effort to grow its presence in the region.
Credit risk reporting: Managing the exposure challenge
Mass financial shocks – including Enron and Argentina – are forcing banks to disclose more information, faster, about their credit exposures to satisfy skittish investors. How are banks' technology infrastructures coping with this challenge?
Little change expected for yen in run-up to fiscal year-end
Japan's former vice-minister of finance for international affairs, Eisuke Sakakibara, aka 'Mr Yen', has suggested the yen should ‘ideally’ depreciate to the 160-180 range against the dollar, further fuelling speculation that the yen could decline sharply…
JP Morgan Chase launches short-term FX predictor
JP Morgan Chase today launched an Economic Activity Surprise Index (Easi) that it claims will help users predict short-term currency moves.
JPMC promotes Winters and Wilson
JP Morgan Chase has promoted Bill Winters and Don Wilson, co-heads of the firm's credit and rate markets business - including credit and rate derivatives - to its 15-strong executive committee.
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.
Linear, yet attractive, Contour
Banks’ Potential Future Exposure models are at the core of the advanced EAD (Exposure At Default) approach to capital requirements for credit risk considered in the New Basel Capital Accord. Juan Cárdenas, Emmanuel Fruchard and Jean-François Picron look…
FASB: loan commitments must be treated like derivatives
The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) ruled last month that some unfunded loan commitments made by banks should be treated like derivatives and marked-to-market. The ruling came nearly nine months after Goldman Sachs first proposed the…
Basel II sets the pace for operational risk reform
Basel II is set to come into play in 2005, bringing a host of opportunities for vendors along with the new framework for banking supervision. Andrew Partridge examines the potential and some of the challenges for the suppliers and users of financial…
ABN Amro expands forex strategy team
Dutch bank ABN Amro is expanding its London foreign exchange strategy team by hiring Aziz McMahon, formerly a treasury economist with Ulster Bank, as a forex strategist.
JP Morgan accuses WestLB on $165m Enron swap
JP Morgan Chase has accused WestLB of failing to make payment on a $165 million letter of credit (l/c) backing an Enron-related swap. JP Morgan Chase made the dispute public, though it did not name West LB, instead merely referring to “a European…
Top investors in credit
This year has been an eye-opener for investors in European credit, with some fund managers living dangerously by under-investing in credit expertise
JP Morgan Chase admits $500 million exposure to Enron
JP Morgan Chase said today that it has $500 million of unsecured exposure to Enron.
Banks move to boost credit derivatives liquidity
JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have agreed to standardise most of the items on their European credit swap master agreements, in a move designed to increase liquidity in the credit derivatives market.
JP Morgan joins ISE via Actant
JP Morgan, the investment banking arm of JP Morgan Chase, has joined the International Securities Exchange (ISE) as a competing market maker, using the Actant Aqtor front-end platform for trade execution and risk strategies. JP Morgan will use Aqtor for…
Basel regulators may scrap 90% IRB floor for credit risk
Global banking regulators will soon abandon their controversial 90%, two-year floor on the benefit banks could reap by moving to the advanced internal ratings based (IRB) technique for calculating capital charges against credit risk under the Basel II…
JP Morgan and Deutsche move to offer broad indexes
JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have signed up to US technology solutions provider Longitude’s Parimutuel Digital Call Auction (PDCA) technology, which could herald the introduction of broader index trading based on economic data. The PDCA technology…
Volvo’s Jarlen denies credit derivatives deal
Magnus Jarlen, risk manager at Volvo Treasury, has denied trade press reports that Volvo has signed up to its first credit derivatives deal, saying that although the Swedish truck manufacturer had met with investment banks like JP Morgan Chase to discuss…
IRB approach explained
At the end of this month, the consultation period for the new Basel Accord on bank capital will end. We have prepared a technical section this month devoted to various issues surrounding Basel II. In the first paper, Tom Wilde sheds light on the…
Wake-up call for Basel’s insurance neighbours
With liquidity draining away from the credit markets, banks have turned to the insurance industry to underwrite credit risks. But how prepared are insurers and reinsurers to takethese risks?
Basel: the new Accord
The Basel Committee’s second consultative paper on reform of the 1988 Accord on capital holds some surprises. Some believe regulatory capital will now have to rise. Dwight Cass reviews the changes, while market experts offer their reaction.
Basel's new credit model
The Basel Committee’s new consultative paper allows banks to internally rate individual credits. But at the portfolio level, Basel wants to apply a single model framework, based in part on a technical paper published in Risk magazine in October 1998.
Documentation dilemmas
Concerns over credit event definitions and the Basel Committee’s ‘ w ’ capital charge on credit mitigation instruments will not be easily resolved.
Basel part two: the jury's verdict
Twelve risk experts and regulators assess the impact of the Basel Committee's proposals.