Risk magazine
HSBC seeks to raise £12.5 billion from shareholders
HSBC today revealed it would try to raise £12.5 billion through a UK rights issue, as it announced both a 62% drop in profits in 2008 and intention to close its US consumer finance business.
SG names Asian structured sales head
Société Générale has named Yann Garnier as head of structured products sales for the Asia-Pacific region.
Freddie Mac CEO resigns
David Moffett, chief executive of the US government-supported mortgage buyer Freddie Mac, has resigned.
Adapt or fail
Since October last year, extreme movements in South Africa's foreign exchange rate have caused offshore hedge funds to exit the market, while dealers have been reluctant to take on risk. Those that remain active have had to adapt their behaviour. By Mark…
Difficulties with deficits
Pension deficits have rocketed, with slumping equity markets decimating asset portfolios. Has this made bulk purchase annuity solutions more attractive or are the costs too punitive? Ryan Davidson reports
A return to structured products?
Structured products have been largely shunned since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September, but low returns in other asset classes may prompt institutional investors to return to the sector in the year ahead. By Peter Madigan
Rainy day funds
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued to gain traction in South Africa despite agitated markets. As a result, local ETF providers are extending their reach to new investors and asset classes - with some even looking to introduce exchange-traded…
Bonding exchanges
Profile
Learning from Basel's mistakes
Regulators are looking again at the Basel II Accord in an attempt to incorporate the lessons learned from the financial crisis. What have Solvency II rule-makers learned from the Basel experience? Joel Clark investigates
Mastering the storm
The succession of credit events in September and October revealed that many investors did not know what to do in the event of a default of a counterparty. What recourse do parties have under the Isda master agreement? By Joshua Cohn and Jillian Ashley
A time for special FX
Dealers are beginning to think a lot more seriously about credit-adjusting the prices they quote on foreign exchange derivatives. How are they calculating this, and how are clients responding to the move? By John Ferry
Smile dynamics III
In two articles published in 2004 and 2005 in Risk, Lorenzo Bergomi assessed the structural limitations of existing models for equity derivatives and introduced a new model based on the direct modelling of the joint dynamics of the spot and the implied…
Bonding exchanges
The Bond Exchange of South Africa has been taking tentative steps towards expansion since its demutualisation in 2007. Now, its future looks intimately intertwined with that of its former rival, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Mark Pengelly reports
Gambling on dividends
Dividends have caused sizeable losses for dealers and investors over the recent months, as a precipitous fall in expectations has hit structured product issuers and those who participated in dividend swaps. Mark Pengelly investigates
Reasons to be cheerful
Comment
Dead in the water?
Basel II
Rainy day funds
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued to gain traction in South Africa despite roiling markets. As a result, local ETF providers are extending their reach to new investors and asset classes - with some even looking to introduce exchange-traded…
Adapt or fail
Since October last year, ructions in South Africa's foreign exchange rate have caused offshore hedge funds to exit the market, while dealers have been reluctant to take on risk. Those that remain active have had to adapt their behaviour as a result. By…
Risk committees under scrutiny after Lehman collapse
How should banks be rethinking the composition and role of their risk committees in the wake of Lehman?
A regulated new year
Regulators are widely expected to increase their oversight of the financial sector in the coming year, with derivatives likely to come under particular scrutiny. As part of the current series of Class Notes articles, Charles Smithson and Steve Allen…