Foreign exchange
Paulson: buying MBSs no longer Tarp priority
Treasury secretary Hank Paulson closed the door to systematic US government purchases of illiquid mortgage-backed securities under its $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp), during a briefing in Washington, DC today.
US home loan modification scheme unveiled
In an effort to halt home foreclosures, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), in conjunction with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unveiled a programme to ease payment terms for hundreds of thousands of US mortgage holders on Tuesday.
Morgan Stanley back trading in Platts oil window
Platts has confirmed that Morgan Stanley has resumed trading in its Asia oil window for the first time since September, indicating that credit issues surrounding the bank, and the wider markets, may be improving.
CFTC’s Lukken calls for new financial regulation in US
Walter Lukken, acting chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), called for the US to scrap current regulatory systems in favour of a new objectives-based framework, in a speech to the Futures Industry Association on November 11.
Fannie Mae and AIG pummelled in Q3
This week, both Fannie Mae and AIG reported steep losses in the third quarter of this year.
Misys launches proactive risk monitoring system
Daily news headlines
Trading goes live at South Pool
Trading at the South Pool regional energy exchange, a joint-venture between Slovenian power market operator Borzen and Eurex, began today.
HSBC Q3 profits up on Q3 2007
HSBC's third-quarter profits rose this year, despite a $271 million loss on its US operations and a total of $7.9 billion in writedowns.
Markets indifferent to Amex conversion as auto-maker bail-out looms
Credit spreads on American Express debt narrowed marginally yesterday while equity prices hit a new low as US markets were largely unmoved by news of the credit card company’s conversion into a bank holding company.
UK Treasury to hold session on remuneration
Daily news headlines
US firms likely to sell 50% of assets to Tarp
Daily news headlines
Barclays Wealth launches protected series
Barclays Wealth has launched a new range of protected investments that will be available until January 9 2009: a five-year regular income bond linked to the DJ Stoxx 50 index of European supersector stocks offers a fixed annual income of 7.75% or a…
Hong Kong's SFC puts structured product approvals on ice
Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has delayed approvals of structured product issues for retail distribution following protests from Hong Kong investors that have lost money from the blow-up of so-called minibond structured credit…
Icap releases guidance on OTC markets
The future course of the over-the-counter derivatives markets will depend on the simplification and overhaul of existing infrastructure so that it becomes more transparent, Risk heard at an Icap press briefing this morning.
Treasury and Fed help AIG lay-off CDO risk
AIG was shored up by a restructuring plan hammered out by the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank of New York today, which involved the creation of an off-balance-sheet vehicle to neutralise some of the insurer’s hefty collateralised debt obligation …
Liquidnet expands into Singapore
Liquidnet, a global institutional marketplace, will open an office in Singapore in November amid growing interest in the region from its buy-side members.
What the financial crisis means for op risk
Editor's blog
Maybank launches Islamic commodity structured deposit
Malaysian bank Maybank has launched the Al-Sayf (MAS-i) structured Islamic deposit which is a sharia-compliant Mudharabah investment which is designed to provide exposure to the commodity-based Maybank Al-Sayf index.
Trades on the rise but volumes suffer in Switzerland
The number of structured product and warrant trades on the Swiss structured product exchange, Scoach broke all previous records in October, despite a 13% fall in the volume of Swiss franc issuance. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a separate category from…
Derivatives loss impacts on Reliant’s Q3 results
Reliant Energy has announced a third quarter net loss of $1.04bn, due to unrealised losses of $1.69bn on energy derivatives.
Russian stocks dragged down by plummeting oil price
Trading volumes on Russia’s two main stock exchanges, Russian Trading System (RTS) and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (Micex), were significantly down in October, following plunging commodity prices and a worsened global financial outlook.
Porsche makes €6.83bn on VW options
Porsche revealed today it had made a €6.83 billion gain in the past business year on cash-settled options on shares of rival German car manufacturer Volkswagen.
End of the boom?
Canadian oil sands production has grown rapidly in recent years, but are rising project costs and falling oil prices now jeopardising projects? Pauline McCallion investigates
Paul Ezekiel
You don't need to be brain surgeon to be a successful carbon trader, but it helps, Paul Ezekiel, managing director and head of carbon trading at Credit Suisse, tells Pauline McCallion