Risk magazine
State St to launch FX fund in fourth quarter
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street, is set to launch a currency fund in the fourth quarter as part of its newly created hedge fund strategies group, a senior official at the firm told RiskNews’ sister…
Escoffier outlines SG’s UK expansion plans
David Escoffier, French investment bank SG’s newly appointed head of equity derivatives for the UK and northern Europe, has outlined his plans for the bank’s British expansion, including selling more structured products.
FNX adds real-time portfolio risk monitoring
Risk technology company FNX has added a real-time ‘treasury blotter’ to measure portfolio risk to its Sierra risk system.
Rothschild enters “under-banked” oil risk sector
Rothschild has entered the oil risk management sector, offering over-the-counter risk management products worldwide across all oil commodities to oil producers, consumers and utilities.
Treasurers ‘extremely concerned’ by IASB rules
The International Group of Treasury Associations (IGTA) says IAS 39 should not be adopted unless two changes related to currency and interest rate hedging are made to the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) rule.
Xenomorph adds pricing models to TimeScape
London-based Xenomorph has integrated pricing models for more than 150 asset classes into TimeScape, its four-month-old enterprise data management and analysis suite.
Mark-it signs up 16 credit derivatives houses
UK credit data company Mark-it Partners said today that it has signed up 16 of the largest credit derivatives houses to use its credit reference entity database, Red.
JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley launch Trac-x Australia
JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley launched the Trac-x Australia index today, the latest addition to the Trac-x global suite of credit default swap indexes created by both firms.
CME to list European weather contracts; jettisons weatherXchange plan
The Chicago Mercantile exchange (CME) will begin to offer European weather derivatives, referenced on five cities’ temperatures, from October 3.
Volkswagen steps up currency hedging
European car manufacturer Volkswagen (VW) has increased its use of foreign exchange hedging, after seeing its profits in the first half sink by 55% year-on-year, in part due to the strength of the euro.
Interest rate products dominate OTC derivatives growth in H1
The over-the-counter vanilla interest rate derivatives market grew 24% in the first six months of the year, to $123.90 trillion in notional outstanding, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.
Isda and Fix join forces
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association and messaging service provider Fix Protocol have formed a joint working group to share information on the development of their respective FpML and Fix messaging standards.
DrKW establishes equity derivatives prop trading desk
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has made several appointments to a new proprietary trading desk within its equity products group.
Nissan Motor takes Reuters risk system
Japanese car manufacturer Nissan Motor has bought Reuters’ Kondor trade-processing risk and trade management product, Kondor+.
UK banks failing SMEs on hedging
More than half of UK businesses with exposure to currency transactions totalling £20 million per year are failing to hedge their exposure, according to research produced by currency services firm Travelex in the UK. The lack of protection is due to a…
State Street launches dedicated hedge fund group
State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of institutional fund manager State Street Corporation, has created a dedicated group for its hedge fund services, in a bid to cash in on increasing market demand for alternative…
Kyte Group snaps up Ubitrade derivatives system
The Kyte Group, a London-based financial services group, has bought a futures and options back-office system from Ubitrade, a French trading and risk management software company.
Energy companies face ‘crunch time’ for accounting compliance
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) believes time is running out for energy and utility companies to get to grips with the pending implemenation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Crossing the frontier
Portfolio risk management
Selling risk at a premium
Option strategies
Hedging using forward rate bias
Foreign exchange
Fimat launches OTC brokerage in Tokyo
Fimat, the retail brokerage arm of French bank Société Générale, has launched a new over-the-counter brokerage service in Japan offering Nikkei options and single stock options.
BarCap to make markets in iBoxx and Trac-x
Barclays Capital will start making markets on the iBoxx credit default swap index, and will offer notes linked to the index. It also said it would make markets in the Trac-x range of indexes.
Insurance optional
Asset/liability management