Risk magazine
No guarantee from Lehman?
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is expected to challenge an apparent pledge to its subsidiaries to guarantee their liabilities and obligations. If successful, the bankrupt estate could render hundreds of billions of dollars worth of claims invalid, and even…
Sovereign debt and LatAm-related hedging key for Spanish dealers
Winners of the Risk España dealer rankings explain how hedging related to sovereign debt issuance and Latin America will be key revenue sources in 2010.
Sponsored statement: Standard Chartered – winning for clients in Asia, Africa and the Middle East
Standard Chartered delivered an impressive set of results for 2009 even as its competitors across the world continued to suffer the fallout of the financial crisis. Group head of financial markets, Lenny Feder, talks about the successes of the year and…
Risk corporate survey 2010
Price is still the most important factor for corporates when choosing which dealer to trade with. However, a wide divergence in pricing among banks means transparency is now a key issue. By Matt Cameron, with additional research by Alexander Campbell,…
Happier times for distressed assets?
The distressed assets sitting on the balance sheets of financial institutions have increased in value in recent months, with a variety of firms reporting paper gains. Has the turning point been reached in distressed structured credit assets? Peter…
Dividend growth
Dealers and hedge funds were hammered by sharp falls in dividends during late 2008 and early 2009. Since then, liquidity has recovered as a wider range of market participants take advantage of the dislocation. Mark Pengelly reports
Reconsidering the fixed-floating mix
Yield curves for sterling, the euro and the dollar are the steepest they have been for well over a decade, leaving companies with outstanding fixed-rate debt and large amounts of cash on balance sheets facing significant negative carry. Many corporates…
Contingency plans
Following recent issues of contingent capital by Lloyds Banking Group and Rabobank, other firms are eyeing similar issuance as a means of meeting higher capital requirements in a cost-effective way. But the Basel Committee, which is due to discuss the…
A sting in the tail
After recent financial turmoil, market participants are thinking much more rigorously about ways to protect themselves against the possibility of rare but extreme events. However, effectively hedging tail risk is not straightforward. By Mark Pengelly
Risk Espana rankings 2010
Changing of the guard
Sponsored webinar: Strengthening the defences
The challenges that fraud presents to financial institutions
Ticked off with the uptick rule
The US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed a revised uptick rule in February, eliminating a key exemption for options market-makers. But some participants say these new rules will impede liquidity and price efficiency in US options markets. Peter…
Predicting the unthinkable
Raj Singh, chief risk officer at Swiss Re, talks to Alexander Campbell
The problem is severity
Financial reformers talk endlessly about the too-big-to-fail problem, but they often fail to address the heart of the issue, argues David Rowe
CDS dealers surprised by announcement of Ambac credit event
Isda has classified a restructuring of Ambac's RMBS-related exposure as a bankruptcy, triggering thousands of CDS.
Mastering sharia
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the International Islamic Financial Market published the long-awaited Islamic master agreement in March after more than three years of negotiations. Market participants welcome the document, but say…