Risk magazine
HBOS deal leads Lloyds to £3.96 billion loss
Lloyds Banking Group made a pre-tax £3.96 billion loss on a pro forma basis in the first half of 2009, primarily due to losses on commercial real estate assets held by HBOS, which it acquired in January.
US senators criticise rating agency reform proposals
Senators and industry experts have criticised US Treasury proposals to keep tabs on credit rating agencies in relation to competition, conflicts of interest and the quality of ratings.
Survey reveals record £96bn deficit for FTSE 100 pension schemes
The financial crisis has plunged the pension schemes of the UK's 100 largest companies into a £96 billion deficit, according to a report by the London-based actuarial consultancy Lane Clark & Peacock (LCP).
New CEO for AIG
Robert Benmosche will join AIG as chief executive later this month.
Positive second-quarter results continue
UK and European banks have posted positive latest second-quarter results, led by strong investment banking revenues - but suffered from tightening credit spreads.
Banks' own credit risk hampers financial results
Own credit risk - the concept of including the credit risk of an institution in the measurement of the liabilities it issues - had a significant impact on banks' profits in the first half of 2009, as credit default swap (CDS) spreads referencing banks'…
Execution appoints Tranter head of derivatives
Nick Tranter joined equities broker Execution on August 3 as head of derivatives, a new role intended to develop the firm's institutional and hedge fund derivatives business .
Ice clears €5.9 billion of CDSs in first week
Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange’s (Ice) European central clearing facility, Ice Clear Europe, has cleared €5.9 billion of credit default swap (CDS) index trades in its first week of operation.
'FSA failed dreadfully' says Treasury Committee
A report on financial regulation published by the UK parliament's Treasury Select Committee criticises the UK Financial Services Authority over its handling of the credit crisis.
Conflict's end
The second phase of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's collateral dispute resolution protocol prescribes a market polling mechanism for settling disputes involving illiquid and complex transactions. How will the market poll work and…
Net results
A master agreement for over-the-counter Islamic derivatives is in the final review stages and could be published as early as next month. After years of debate, the difficult issue of close-out netting appears to be close to resolution. By Alastair Marsh
Custody battle
Following the losses suffered in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, hedge funds are increasingly looking to place initial margin with bankruptcy-remote third-party custodians. But prime brokers are staunchly refusing to surrender…
Sharia and sharia alike
Opinion on whether derivatives comply with sharia has split scholars in Islamic financial markets. Mohamad Nedal Alchaar, secretary-general of the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions, talks to Alastair Marsh about its…
Going electronic
Collateral management functions currently exchange margin call notices and confirmation of interest payment by email, but the need for automation is becoming more urgent. The industry is looking to define the sequence of messages that would need to be…
The wa'ad on the Street
The Islamic concept of wa'ad has been used as a linchpin for a variety of structured products in recent years. Priya Uberoi, Rahul Chatterji and Dany Bidar consider the role of wa'ad in the evolution of Islamic derivatives, outlining the essential…
Rehabilitating innovation
The financial crisis has put greater focus on the accuracy of models, with some regulators criticising banks for placing too much reliance on model outputs. In an introduction to this month's Cutting Edge section, Mauro Cesa, Risk's technical editor, and…
The hybrid saddlepoint method for credit portfolios
Anthony Owen, Alistair McLeod and Kevin Thompson derive a practical analytic approach, which they call the hybrid saddlepoint method, to calculate the credit loss distribution for a heterogeneous portfolio of correlated obligors
Credit spread shocks: how big and how often?
The second half of 2007 saw violent moves in credit spreads. In the fallout, there has been much discussion about how to estimate the probabilities of these severe events, but few conclusions have been obtained beyond the fact that historical data is…
Into account
The US Financial Accounting Standards Board has released new rules on off-balance-sheet exposures, which will compel US companies to consolidate billions of dollars of assets previously kept in special-purpose entities on to their balance sheets. How…