Risk magazine
Credit ratings come into FX focus
Credit ratings are becoming increasingly significant to foreign exchange market players, with downgrades increasing in the current economic downturn, market participants told RiskNews ' sister publication FX Week .
UK’s Centrica signs five-year, £40 million weather hedge
British Gas Trading, a subsidiary of UK energy company Centrica, has concluded a £40 million weather hedge with Bermuda-based XL Capital. The multi-year deal may prove the largest in Europe this year.
Forex renaissance
Introduction
Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian banks most risky in Asia
Banks domiciled in China, Indonesia and Vietnam are the most risky in Asia when it comes to economic and industry risk combined with problem assets, according to a 14-country study by rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
Europe allows wider role for op risk insurance in Cad 3
European banks and investment firms should be able to use operational risk insurance to reduce capital charges in all approaches to measuring op risk under new European Union (EU) capital adequacy rules.
Deutsche to roll out electronic bond platform in Thailand
Deutsche Bank’s global markets business unit plans to roll out its eCommerce bond and credit note trading platform in Thailand by the end of the month. Called ‘Autobahn’, the platform will trade Thai government bonds via Bloomberg terminals. The move…
GFI expands credit derivatives brokerage team in Asia
New York-based brokerage GFI Group is opening a Hong Kong desk to concentrate on non-Japanese Asian credit default swaps. The desk will serve Asian-based clients, adding to GFI’s existing credit derivative desks in Sydney, London and New York.
Spectron launches online weather trading
Energy market intermediary Spectron has launched an online platform for trading weather derivatives.
IBM: covering all the angles
Corporate Q&A
Travelex: the one-stop currency shop
Corporate profile
How Merrill got the message
Dealer profile
Chicago Board of Trade president Vitale resigns
David Vitale has resigned as president and chief executive of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Bernard Dan, an executive vice-president at the exchange who joined from Cargill Investor Services in 2001, where he was president and chief executive, will…
Strong Q2 causes BA protection cost to narrow 200bp
The cost of credit protection for British Airways (BA) has tightened by 200 basis points to 725bp following surprisingly strong second-quarter earnings figures released yesterday. The airline beat market expectations by pulling off a financial turnaround…
IDC acquires Meridien Research
IDC, the technology and e-business research subsidiary of IDG, the Boston-based technology media and conferences company, has acquired Meridien Research, a Massachusetts-based firm specialising in risk and trading technology, customer relationship…
CMS ponders future of energy trading business
Michigan-based CMS Energy may exit the energy trading business after it found that round-trip trades were undertaken by the company to raise CMS Marketing, Services and Trading's profile with existing and potential clients.
Unsystematic credit risk
Although Basel has shifted its treatment of unsystematic credit risk from the first, capital rules pillar (where it was called the ‘granularity adjustment’) to the second, supervisory pillar of the forthcoming Accord, this issue is of great practical…
Minimising extremes
Portfolio diversification often breaks down in stressed market environments, but the co-movement of asset prices in a tail risk regime may be modelled using a coefficient of tail dependence. Here, Yannick Malevergne and Didier Sornette show how such…
Scor ousts chief but sees no let up in cost of credit protection
French reinsurer Scor - plagued by profits warnings and a deteriorating financial position - has ousted its chairman and chief executive, Jacques Blondeau, with immediate effect, replacing him with Denis Kessler of the French insurance association.
IAFE releases op risk white paper for buy-side firms
The International Association of Financial Engineers (IAFE) yesterday released a white paper on operational risk for buy-side institutions, which concludes that business reputation rather than Basel-inspired regulation is the real driver for implementing…
Energy brokers form their first trade association
Seven of the largest US over-the-counter energy brokers have formed a trade association with the aim of enhancing the struggling energy trading markets.
KWI hires new financial engineer
KWI, the London-based energy risk management software company, has hired Oleg Zakharov as vice-president of financial engineering – a newly created position. In his new role, Zakharov will be responsible for KWI’s risk management framework, architecture…
Alpha appoints Rogers to new UK marketing role
New York-based Alpha Investment Management has hired Carcie Rogers to boost its marketing efforts to large financial institutions in the UK and the rest of Europe.
Reuters adds US/Singapore dollar forward pair to dealing platform
Dealers will be able to trade US dollar/Singapore dollar forwards on Reuters' electronic matching service from today, according to the UK information and technology group.
Value-at-risk: down but not out
‘No more VAR.’ This increasingly shrill call is being made by a section of the academic finance community both in journals and at conferences. Now, some practitioners are latching on, offering ‘VAR-free’ portfolio optimisation that is being promoted as…