Structured products
Moody's launches LossCalc
Moody’s Risk Management Services (MRMS) claims that its latest product, LossCalc, is the first risk management tool to predict loss-given default (LGD) for investors in the event of a company’s bankruptcy.
Swiss Re strikes $150 million contingent capital deal
Swiss Re, the Zurich-based reinsurer, has closed a $150 million contingent capital deal with MBIA, the world’s largest financial guarantor, based in Armonk, New York. The deal closed on December 27, but its details have been closely guarded until now.
Regulation | On the road to Basel III
UK regulators want to harmonise regulation of the financial services sector – and they have insurance companies in their sights.
Legislation | Enron-related regulatory issues hit derivatives industry
Enron’s collapse has sparked calls for more derivatives regulation and stricter accounting standards in the US. What proposals should the derivatives industry be concerned about? Polyn
Solving the pensions puzzle
A host of market and structural problems are plaguing US corporate pension plans. Derivatives dealers are pitching a number of potential solutions.
Pinched budgets strain IT decisions
The September 11 attacks and continuing economic downturn have severely affected the global banking industry. Now banks’ IT departments must increasingly justify their build-or-buy decisions in terms of value for money, speed and increased functionality.
Job moves
QUOTE OF THE MONTH: - “Few regulators really understand derivatives... That’s not their fault, many of us don’t either” A London forex trader commenting on AIB’s $750 million loss. Source: The Mirror, February 7
UBS Warburg snares Merrill equity risk structurers
UBS Warburg has snared Min Park and Chang Sik Cin from Merrill Lynch to boost its equity derivatives risk services offered to institutional investors, corporate clients, and high-net-worth individuals.
Defaults hit new record levels, says Moody’s
International rating agency Moody’s said that credit losses due to defaults reached record levels in 2001, as loss rates on speculative-grade defaulted bonds surged and recovery rates on the defaulted bonds plummeted for the third straight year.
Weathering the storms
Zaheer Sitabkhan reveals the investment tactics behind the successful LG Asia Plus equity fund
Little change expected for yen in run-up to fiscal year-end
Japan's former vice-minister of finance for international affairs, Eisuke Sakakibara, aka 'Mr Yen', has suggested the yen should ‘ideally’ depreciate to the 160-180 range against the dollar, further fuelling speculation that the yen could decline sharply…