Risk magazine
Esops: time to hedge?
With share prices depressed, now seems a good time for companies with large employee stock option plans to hedge them. Why aren’t corporate treasurers acting?
Job moves
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: - “Chairman Harvey Pitt [of the US Securities and Exchange Commission] and I are in close contact, and I sometimes hope that every conversation I have with him will be the last on the single-stock futures issue” James Newsome,…
Getting the deal done
Falling equity valuations have made funding a merger or acquisition with stock difficult. Equity derivatives dealers are devising and updating hedges to ensure deals get done despite the bear market. Rob Dwyer examines the latest techniques
An aggressive agenda
Dresdner’s chief risk officer, Heinrich Linz, is masterminding a credit revolution at the German bank.
A crisis of identity
Recent news stories have highlighted a controversy over identification of the specific reference entity in certain credit derivatives contracts. Troubling as this is, it reflects a more pervasive lack of discipline among financial institutions. In this…
The evolving art of pricing cliquets
Cliquet options are widely traded and embedded in many retail structured products. But they are hard to value and some dealers claim their rivals are mis-pricing them. Navroz Patel reports on the debate and some initiatives that may help
Insurers embrace risk systems
Insurance companies have been slower than banks to adopt advanced risk modelling techniques and technologies. But regulatory changes and business exigencies are spurring them to adopt a new generation of risk and capital management systems
Credit Markets Update: Xerox scandal spooks market
Reports of another major accounting blunder, this time at Xerox, have spooked the credit derivatives market and sent bids for credit protection on European names escalating again. Credit default swaps spreads on European credits had been tightening after…
Japan Credit Market Update: Spreads track equities on WorldCom fears
The cost of default protection on Japanese credits stabilised on Friday after Wednesday’s sharp widening caused by a $3.8 billion accounting scandal at US telecommunications group WorldCom, volatile equity markets and the steady strengthening of the yen…
CMA develops credit derivatives analysis product
Credit Market Analysis (CMA), a specialist provider of analytics for the credit markets, is marketing a new analytics system called CMA Market Monitor, which will provide investors with spread information on bonds and credit derivatives. The company…
HSBC hires new head of risk management advisory for Asia-Pacific
HSBC has hired Ivan Wong from Citigroup as head of risk management advisory for the Asia-Pacific region, according to a source at the bank.
Westpac considers cap guarantee funds
Australian bank Westpac plans to start launching capital guaranteed funds into the Australian market-place within the next 12 months, according to Stephen Eakin, head of equity derivatives at Westpac in Sydney.
Standard Chartered creates securitisation capability
Standard Chartered has entered the securitisation business by stealth, hiring a global head of securitisations and several specialists in London and Hong Kong.
Tullett signs new contract with Kalahari
London-based inter-dealer broker Tullett & Tokyo Liberty has signed a new three-year contract with Kalahari, an analytical and price discovery software company also based in the UK. The decision marks the extension of a 10-year tie-up between the two…
Credit Congress 2002: Credit hedging by convertible hedge funds set to rise, says Goldman
The potential opportunities for convertible hedge fund arbitrage will see the market grow from $2 to $2.5 billion by the end of this year, according to Klaus Toft, an executive director in Goldman Sachs’ credit derivatives strategies group.
Basel II focus switches to securitisation after SME loan solution agreed
Experts working on the Basel II bank capital rules are focusing on the technically difficult issue of asset securitisation after agreeing a solution this month to the politically sensitive problem of how lending to small and medium-sized enterprises …
ABN Amro, Eureka Hedge Advisors to launch Asian hedge fund index
ABN Amro and Eureka Hedge Advisors, a hedge fund research and advisory service based in Hong Kong and Singapore, have launched a benchmark index for Asian hedge funds. The service is aimed at providing investors and fund managers with a means to compare…
US middle-market CLO business poised to rise, says Fitch
US middle-market collateralised loan obligation (CLO) issuance is set to rise, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. A middle-market company is classed as one with annual revenues of between $10 and 400 million.
UK central bank concerned by investor appetite for credit risk
The purchase of credit derivatives instruments by some institutional investors in their hunt for yield is a cause for concern, the Bank of England said in its latest Financial Stability Review, released today.