Risk magazine
Monolines - the nuclear option
XL Capital Assurance and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company (FGIC) face legal action by three banks after cancelling insurance contracts they had written on asset-backed securities transactions.
Banks sued over ARS lockdown
Morgan Stanley, UBS, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank have been named as defendants in the first wave of legal action by investors left holding illiquid auction rate securities (ARS).
Icap expands property derivatives business into Asia-Pacific
Icap has expanded its property derivatives business into the Asia-Pacific region. The new office will be headed by George Dranganoudis in Singapore, who has held senior roles at the UK-based interdealer broker in Asia and Europe in the past decade.
HSBC names new Singapore head of global markets
HSBC has promoted Amit Gupta to head of global markets in Singapore from his previous role as head of sales for global markets, with effect from April 1. He succeeds John McGowan, who will retire in June.
JP Morgan raises Bear Stearns offer to $1.18 billion after shareholder unrest
JP Morgan has raised its proposed purchase offer for Bear Stearns to $10 a share in a move designed to assuage the anger of Bear shareholders incensed by JP’s initial offer of just $2 a share.
Credit Suisse sacks traders involved in mispricing
Credit Suisse has sacked or suspended the traders behind the mispricing that cost it a $2.65 billion writedown last month.
Havens and Klein named institutional client heads at Citi
Michael Klein and John Havens jointly replaced Citi chief executive Vikram Pandit as chairman and chief executive of the bank's institutional clients group in New York on March 17.
Krause joins Deutsche Bank's management board
Stefan Krause has been named as the next chief financial officer of Deutsche Bank - he will succeed Anthony di Iorio on his retirement on October 1.
Briault leaves FSA
Clive Briault, the UK Financial Services Authority's head of retail supervision, will leave the FSA at the end of next month.
GSEs plan $2 trillion in US mortgage purchases
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), have announced an initiative potentially worth $2 trillion to increase liquidity in the troubled US mortgage market.
SG promotes chief financial officer
Société Générale has named Frédéric Oudea its deputy chief executive, joining two others.
Kirnon: Agencies and banks can do more for transparency
Both rating agencies and banks can do more to meet investor demand for greater transparency in the structured credit market, said Noel Kirnon, New York-based head of global structured finance at Moody’s Investors Service.
Lehman back from the brink?
Lehman Brothers saw its shares rise dramatically today as it reassured investors about its liquidity supply.
Fed will support securities market directly
The US Federal Reserve Bank will start backing primary securities dealers as well as banks through its discount in another attempt to stave off a general financial collapse, it announced yesterday.
CME Group buys Nymex and offloads metals
Exchange consolidation continued over the weekend, with CME Group buying Nymex, the New York-based metals and energy exchange, and selling its own metals business to the NYSE Euronext group.
JP Morgan buys Bear Stearns after receiving Fed guarantee
JP Morgan, the middleman in the Federal Reserve's discount-window attempt to prop up Bear Stearns on Friday, will buy the troubled bank at a knockdown price.
Bank writedowns - is the worst over?
The credit crisis that has roiled the financial markets has wiped out massive amounts of value from banks' balance sheets, resulting in crippling losses for some banks. Most recently, HSBC announced a 79% rise in loan impairment charges and credit risk…
Margin calls bring mortgage funds to their knees
Funds that invest in asset-backed securities (ABSs) are struggling to cope with hikes in margin calls from investors – and some are even collapsing.
ISE vice-chairman quits over insider trading charges
John Marshall, the vice-chairman of the International Securities Exchange in New York, has resigned after being charged with insider trading.
Fed bails out Bear Stearns
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has stepped in to prevent insolvency at Bear Stearns, offering to provide liquidity through JP Morgan.
Sovereign wealth funds spark lively debate
At the Sovereign Wealth Management conference - hosted by Central Banking Publications in London on Thursday - calls for greater transparency by sovereign wealth funds were matched by demands from the funds themselves for fair regulatory treatment.
Standard swap-deliverable CCDS expected soon
A working group of about 10 major dealers and brokers could be just two months away from producing a standard contract for swap-deliverable contingent credit default swaps (CCDSs), predicted a person close to the group.
Moody's caves on muni bond ratings
In reaction to criticism of its double standard, credit rating agency Moody's will start rating municipal debt on the same scale as corporate debt, in a move that could make life easier for municipal issuers - but deprive the troubled monolines of a key…
Deutsche names Ritchotte COO of global markets
Henry Ritchotte has been promoted to chief operating officer (COO) of Deutsche Bank’s global markets division. He will replace Mark Ferron, who will retire in early 2009.