United States
Basel uniformity fades as members defy dress code
Rule-makers diverge from Basel III standards, denting aims of comparability and fuelling fears over fair competition
Clients’ share of IRS clearing margin hit record high
Data from CME, Eurex and LCH shows clearing members’ house IM fell in January, pushing client proportion to 67.7%
Trump’s tariff threats stress London gold market
Cost of funding customer positions has shot up 10,000% as deliverable supplies shift to New York
JP Morgan logs two VAR breaches as trading revenue slumps
Largest trading loss in Q4 reached 262% of the bank’s VAR limit, matching a breach reported at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic
US Treasury clearing mandate poses riddle for Asian markets
Participants unclear on how far the rules will reach, or the role of inter-affiliate exemptions
Nasdaq leads push to reform options regulatory fee
Proposed rule change would pare costs for traders, raise them for banks and defund smaller venues
Comerica, Popular and Ally most battered by agency RMBS markdowns
One-fifth of investment’s value eroded as of December 2024
Looming US Basel endgame redraft sparks calls to save IRB
Experts say 20 years of data makes credit risk models more appropriate than standardised approach
AI and Trump tariffs spur hyped-up dispersion trade
Popular vol strategy pays off in January despite highest entry costs on record
Op risk data: Two Sigma pays the price for model mess
Also: KuCoin’s AML fail, Angola bribes bite Trafigura, and Trump’s green scepticism. Data by ORX News
Cool heads must guide financial regulation of climate risk
Supervisors can’t simply rely on ‘magical thinking’ of market discipline, says Sergio Scandizzo
Barclays, RBC end 2024 with record-high swaps margin
Both dealers see double-digit increases, but year sees least growth in at least a decade
First Citizens doubled pay-fixed interest rate swap book in Q4
Rejig of hedging instruments hints at higher-for-longer rate assumption
Tariff news ‘ping pong’ gives FX options desks a headache
Dealers say Trump’s shifting deadlines sparked weekend trading rush and made it hard to monetise flows
Big banks could be sidelined from future rescue deals – FSB
Exacerbation of too-big-to-fail means G-Sibs could already be too large to take extra assets
More guidance, less enforcement: the SEC under Paul Atkins
Current and former insiders expect clearer crypto rules and an end to regulatory violation sweeps
Cross-border lending to shadow banks spiked in Q3
Non-bank financial institutions record fastest annual growth since Covid-19 pandemic
Funds tap options on FX vol amid tariff disruptions
Dealers say vanillas, digitals and knockouts on realised vol increasingly used to navigate Trump news flow
Hedge funds could look to bypass UST clearing mandate
New paper argues that repo users might relocate offshore or use other means to avoid US Treasury clearing dragnet
UBS’s FCM allocates record-low own funds relative to client margin
Residual interest equivalent to just 1.9% of customer contributions for futures and options in November
EU bond-futures basis flip spells curtains for netting
Alignment with US positions brings higher balance sheet usage, while low returns also a turn-off say traders
US MMFs retrenched to Fed repos as 2024 wrapped up
Allocation needs trump yields, boosting RRP exposure by 125% in December
During Trump turbulence, value-at-risk may go pop
Trading risk models have been trained in quiet markets, and volatility is now looming
Corporates eye complex FX hedges as carry costs mount
Leveraged forwards and options-based structures entice treasurers facing rates uncertainty and FX volatility