Risk magazine
FXall edges ahead of rivals
FXall is edging ahead in the battle for supremacy among multi-bank FX trading portals, according to a major survey of the market made public last week.
PwC report critical of bank risk management strategies
Many financial institutions are not managing the full spectrum of risks effectively, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The report said financial services companies should re-evaluate their…
BBSP launches FX implied volatility forecasting
French technical analyst forecasting company BBSP has launched a service that charts and forecasts implied volatilities for currencies, officials at the firm said.
LCH and x-clear to launch pan-European CCP next year
The London Clearing House (LCH) and Swiss central counterparty (CCP) x-clear are to launch a pan-European CCP structure in March 2003 for pan-European cross-border equity exchange virt-x.
ICE to offer power clearing
Atlanta-based commodities market-place IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) and the Board of Trade Clearing Corporation (the Clearing Corporation) are to offer clearing services for the most actively traded over-the-counter US power products beginning at the…
DPM appoints chief financial officer and assistant controller
New Jersey-based Derivatives Portfolio Management (DPM), which provides data-gathering, risk analysis and reporting services to financial institutions, has appointed Steve Mandell as chief financial officer and Judy Yellin as assistant controller, both…
Fitch Risk Management to acquire NetRisk and OpVantage
New York-based Fitch Risk Management, part of rating agency Fitch, plans to acquire NetRisk and its subsidiary, OpVantage, both Connecticut-based risk management companies. The amount of the purchase has not been disclosed.
Credit Markets Update: Negative equity sentiment transmutes into wider spreads
European credit default swap spreads were wider this week, with investors buying protection as credit concerns and accounting scandals in the US contributed to negative investor sentiment that led to a further battering of stocks.
ABN Amro continues credit derivatives expansion
ABN Amro has made Terri Duhon its London-based head of credit structuring and head of exotics trading, a newly created position. Duhon is the latest in a string of senior credit derivatives hires for the Dutch Bank in London, New York and Singapore.
Japan Credit Market Update: Increased protection buying send spreads wider
Japanese credit default swap spreads were wider this week, with investors buying protection on the back of new convertible bond issuance, more credit concerns and the possibility that accounting scandals seen in the US may spread to Japanese companies.
Credit quality improved but spreads widen in Q2, says S&P
Rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said global credit quality continued to improve in the second quarter of 2002. The global downgrade-to-upgrade ratio, which was 7:0 in the final quarter of 2001 was 5:3 in the first quarter of 2002 and 3:1 for the…
Implied volatility surge sees the return of institutional hedging
Short-term implied option volatility has shot up during the past month due to falling equity markets, which has led to increased institutional hedging, according to a report published this week by Goldman Sachs.
Commerzbank appoints Pomper to head credit sales
Commerzbank Securities, the investment banking division of Commerzbank, has appointed Avril Pomper as head of credit sales in London.
CSFB lures top quant Lipton from Deutsche
Alexander Lipton, the first recipient of Risk 's 'quant of the year award' in 2000, has joined Credit Suisse First Boston as a director in the firm's global modelling and analytics team in New York, reporting to managing director Daniel Brown.
European Union Basel II/Cad 3 timetable remains tight
The European Commission’s plans to apply risk-based protective capital rules to banks in the European Union (EU) remain on a tight schedule following yesterday’s progress statement on the Basel II bank Accord by global banking regulators, a Commission…
Eurex gains control of a/c/e as alliance with CBOT is ‘restructured’
European derivatives exchange Eurex has acquired full ownership of a/c/e, the electronic trading platform it shared with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). The move restructures a partnership agreement with the Chicago exchange which has been in place…
Reech appoints Chaplin to develop credit derivatives functionality
Reech Capital, the London-based supplier of risk management, pricing, valuation and operational services, has appointed Geoff Chaplin to oversee development of credit derivatives functionality for its portfolio of quantitative business tools.
Isda OTC derivatives operations benchmarking survey shows mixed results
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s latest over-the-counter derivatives operations benchmarking survey showed an increase in processing speed and automation for standardised products such as vanilla forward rate agreements (FRAs) and…
Rift emerges at CFTC over Feinstein bill
Thomas Erickson, a commissioner of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), yesterday said he fully supports increased oversight of energy derivatives trading, in the wake of Enron’s collapse. Erickson, testifying before the US Senate…
Basel II op risk floor abandoned
Global banking regulators said today they would eliminate the floor on capital charges under the advanced approaches to measuring operational risk in the Basel II bank accord.
Isda welcomes “positive” Basel II statement
The progress statement on the Basel II bank accord issued today by global regulators was mostly positive, said officials at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (Isda), the trade body for the world’s financial risk management industry.
National regulators able to ‘opt out’ of Basel II maturity treatment
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the architect of Basel II, has climbed down from its initial plans to force banks to include a full maturity adjustment on capital allocated against risk of defaulting loans, in its proposed mark-to-market…
Aquila backs Feinstein energy trading proposals
Missouri-based energy company Aquila today said it strongly supports Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposal for more aggressive Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) oversight of energy derivatives trading.
Credit Markets Update: Vivendi and Alcatel protection still available
Credit default swaps are still being trading on troubled French companies Vivendi and Alcatel, although at spreads of between 1,500 to 2,500 basis points for five-year protection, traders in London said today.