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Review of the year
A look back at the significant risk events of 2001.
Enron collapse a test, not threat, to credit market
Enron’s bankruptcy may be the biggest test of the credit derivatives market to date. But when the dust settles, its most profound effect may be on credit investors’ preference for managed portfolio transactions. Rob Dwyer reports
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.
Feder to head Japanese derivatives for Bear Stearns
US investment bank Bear Stearns has appointed Leonard Feder to the newly created position of head of fixed income and derivatives for Japan. Feder will be responsible for the firm’s trading and risk management strategy for Japan, including corporate…
Lo wins Iafe financial engineer of the year award
The International Association of Financial Engineers (Iafe) has named Andrew Lo, Harris & Harris group professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the director of MIT's Laboratory for Financial Engineering, as financial engineer of the year.
Costas named chief executive at UBS Warburg; Arnold ousted
UBS Warburg, the investment banking unit of Switzerland’s UBS, has promoted John Costas to chief executive. Based in London, Costas will assume the day-to-day operational leadership of the business group and will sit on the UBS group executive board.
EasyScreen lures in Warburg's Kleinops to boost US effort
EasyScreen, the London-based front-end futures and options software vendor, has made Jim Kleinops its new head of technical sales and design for its US office in Chicago.
BoA's corporate risk veteran Vandiver to retire
Bank of America’s (BoA) corporate risk management executive Bill Vandiver will retire in March, following 35 years with the Charlotte-based financial services company. He will be replaced by Amy Woods Brinkley, presently deputy corporate risk management…
Tamesis hires derivatives veteran Benson
Tamesis, the London-based supplier of risk management and trading solutions to investment banks, has hired derivatives veteran Robert Benson as a board director.
Enron's bankruptcy leaves freight derivatives opening
Enron's bankruptcy has left a vacant brokers' position in the small but growing freight derivatives market, which is being eyed up by a number of players. Enron had been one of the main market-makers in the forward freight agreements (FFAs) market, with…
Commerzbank loses head of alternative investment unit
Kevin Ferro, formerly head of Commerzbank’s New York-based Alternative Investment Strategies (AIS) unit, has left the firm, along with five members of his team. A Commerzbank spokesperson in New York said that Ferro and his colleagues have set up a new…
Goldman's Litzenberger retires
Bob Litzenberger, head of firm-wide risk management for Goldman Sachs, retired last week. Noel Donohoe, chief operating officer for the firm-wide risk management group, has replaced him.
Icap loses head of weather
Dan Tomlinson, head of weather derivatives at Icap, has left the London-based inter-dealer broker and joined WeatherXchange, a joint initiative between the UK’s Meteorological Office and Umbrella Brokers.
CME taps Sears to run forex business
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), currently the world’s third-largest derivatives exchange by volume, has appointed Richard E. Sears to a new position as managing director in charge of managing the CME’s foreign exchange business.
Will Germany scupper Basel II?
How real is Germany’s threat to veto the proposed Basel II bank capital accord if the country fails to get the concessions it wants on the accord’s treatment of bank lending to small to medium-sized companies (SMEs)?
Could the Basel II op risk charge be cut again?
BASEL - Might banking regulators agree again to lower the capital charge for operational risk proposed under the controversial Basel II bank capital accord as part of horse-trading over the credit risk charge?
Building for Basel
The 2005 implementation date for the new Basel II Accord – already postponed by a year – is looming large. Whilst the banking sector is steadily gearing up for the proposed changes, there are fears that some institutions may be left behind.
Is there hope in the advanced measurement approaches?
Basel II is mistaken in assuming a stable relationship between expected and unexpected losses, argues Jacques Pézier in his second article on the Basel Committee’s recent operational risk working paper.
Building for Basel
The 2005 implementation date for the new Basel II Accord – already postponed by a year – is looming large. Whilst the banking sector is steadily gearing up for the proposed changes, there are fears that some institutions may be left behind.
Op risk capital charges to apply in expanded European Union
Brussels - The terms of the European Union’s proposed new capital adequacy rules for banks and investment firms will apply to all member countries of an expanded EU, officials with the European Commission, the EU’s ruling body, said in November.
A spanner in the works
The US and Germany are in a standoff over Basel II’s capital charge calculation for SME lending. Without a compromise this month, the issue threatens to derail implementation of the Accord and the European Directive.
A perfect rating
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Building for Basel
Basel implementation