Risk magazine
Reliant bows out of energy trading
Houston-based Reliant Energy has exited the energy derivatives trading market as a result of an $80 million trading loss it suffered at the end of February.
Caruana to replace McDonough as Basel Committee chief
Jaime Caruana, governor of the Bank of Spain, will replace William McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as chairman of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.
Vol surge expected from Eastern Europe
Political events in countries slated to join the European Union and the euro are set to trigger a wave of foreign exchange volatility in emerging European countries, market participants said.
Algorithmics launches Algo Risk on Bloomberg
Algorithmics, the Toronto-headquartered provider of risk management software, has launched its Algo Risk risk management application, a product developed in partnership with news and information provider Bloomberg.
Tullett expands SwapMarker coverage
Tullett Financial, a subsidiary of inter-dealer broker Tullett, which provides data on derivatives products, has brought together its North American and European SwapMarker services to offer a single global service for real-time interest rate derivatives…
Amrolia quits as co-head of European corporates group at Goldman
Zar Amrolia, co-head of the European corporates group and former global head of foreign exchanges sales at Goldman Sachs, has left the bank after a series of job changes divested him of some of his forex responsibilities.
SG reorganises European forex derivatives sales team
SG, the corporate and investment banking arm of Société Générale, has reorganised its London-based, western European (excluding France) foreign exchange cash and derivatives sales team into two specialised lines.
£60 billion Isis fund signs up to Riskdata
Isis, a £60 billion UK investment fund created through the merger of Friends Ivory & Sime and Royal & SunAlliance Investments at the end of last year, has signed up to use an interactive risk management system developed by Paris-based company Riskdata.
Japan's banks under pressure as Nikkei hits fresh 20-year lows
Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index fell to fresh 20-year lows today, sparking further concerns that the capital adequacy ratios of the country’s banks may come under acute pressure in the approach to the March fiscal year-end.
Risk ’s quant of the year backs Buffett
Peter Carr, recipient of Risk 's 2003 quant of the year award, said that in a [hypothetical] argument between quants convinced of the infallibility of their models and derivatives sceptics such as Warren Buffett, he would probably side with Buffett.
Poor auto sales and Fiat downgrade drives some spreads wider
The downgrade of debt issued by troubled Italian auto manufacturer Fiat to junk status sent the cost of its credit protection wider by about 125 basis points to 875/975bp. And poor US February auto sales released mid-week also prompted the widening on…
Opportunities exist for credit arbitrage in Asia, says Lehman
There are significant opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region for hedge funds employing credit and capital structure arbitrage, and a growing number of firms are starting to consider these strategies in the region, according to Dalip Awasthi, Tokyo…
Greenspan defends role of derivatives
In a speech today, Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, defended the use of derivatives as hedging tools, especially credit derivatives. His comments come in the wake of Warren Buffett’s criticism of derivatives as potential “time bombs”.
Eurohypo selects Front Arena
Eurohypo, the German mortgage bank created by Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank and Commerzbank, has selected the Front Arena IT system to manage its interest rate derivatives, fixed-income, credit derivatives, structured products and money markets trading.
Japanese credit default swaps market turns defensive
Japan’s credit default swaps market continued to ignore the threat of war in Iraq, diplomatic tensions with North Korea and weak stock markets, but the mood in Tokyo was nevertheless bearish, and market participants were more keen to buy protection than…
Merrill nabs Goldman Sachs risk management group staff
Merrill Lynch has hired four ex-Goldman Sachs bankers for its corporate risk management group focused on Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Meeting Basel II head on
Profile
Universal hedging
Comment
Confusion over membership at WBOT continues
Dan Parker, chief executive of Atlanta-based Weather Board of Trade (WBOT), today told RiskNews that two institutions he originally named as charter members of the weather derivatives exchange never had such an agreement with the company.
Knight Trading creates institutional options and ETF team
US equity and derivatives market-maker Knight Trading has established an institutional options and exchange-traded funds (ETF) sales and trading team with six new appointees, mostly from Merrill Lynch.
First Taiwanese offshore primary CBO to close this month
The first Taiwanese offshore primary collateralised bond obligation (CBO), worth nearly $170 million, is expected to price in the week of March 17 and close on March 21, sources familiar with the transaction said today.
Algo teams with Agena to solve op risk data history issue
Canadian risk management technology supplier Algorithmics has teamed up with UK software company Agena to help institutions to better model operational risk.
Job moves
People
Senators move to establish stronger federal oversight of energy markets
A group of US senators yesterday introduced legislation, called the Energy Market Oversight Act, that seeks to restore the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) authority over online and bilateral energy trades and give the Federal Energy…