News
ABN Amro names swaps expert King as Taiwan country rep
ABN Amro Taiwan has made Terry King its country representative, in addition to his existing role as head of financial markets of ABN Amro Taiwan, a position he has held since 2001.
Julius Baer NY hires in FX forwards
Swiss bank Julius Baer has hired Remo Caderas to trade foreign exchange forwards and fixed-income products in New York as part of an ongoing effort to ramp up its forex business.
RBC signs up to GFI forex option pricing system
RBC Capital Markets, the corporate and investment banking arm of Canada's RBC Financial Group, has signed up to use the Fenics FX system of New York-based broker and technology provider GFI, for its foreign exchange options marketing.
Asia's ABS market breaks records in 2002
The Asian securitisation market had its most successful year ever in 2002, with cross-border issuance reaching a record $5.56 billion, according to a report by ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service.
Mirek steps down from Currenex
Lori Mirek, chief executive of Currenex, has stepped down following a raft of senior management changes at the foreign exchange trading portal. The development was viewed as a shock by many forex market participants – Mirek was one of the best-known…
S&P exits data business with sale of ComStock to Interactive Data
Interactive Data Corp, a unit of UK media company Pearson, has agreed to buy Standard & Poor’s (S&P) ComStock for $115 million in cash, adding real-time market data to its stable of products.
McDonough bows out from New York Fed
William McDonough, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the past 10 years, will retire on July 21 this year.
McDonough bows out from New York Fed
William McDonough, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for the past 10 years, will retire on July 21 this year.
Barclays Capital sets up fixed-income prime brokerage units
Barclays Capital is setting up fixed-income prime brokerage units in London and New York, the bank said. The units will trade corporate and government bonds and their related derivatives.
CreditTrade to supply benchmark data through Reuters
CreditTrade, the London-based inter-dealer broker and provider of credit derivatives data, has signed an agreement with Reuters, the UK information and technology group, to distribute CreditTrade's benchmark credit derivatives data via its screens.
Japanese credit default swap spreads tighten as liquidity returns
Japanese credit default swaps were generally tighter this week, as more participants came back to the market, putting an end to several weeks of illiquidity during the holiday season.
Rogue trader Rusnak receives prison sentence
John Rusnak, the former Allied Irish Banks (AIB) trader responsible for $691 million in fraudulent losses related to yen-dollar currency forwards, has been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.
Entergy Koch enters Spanish power market
US energy trader Entergy Koch Trading (EKT) has started to trade derivatives in the Spanish power market. The move will enhance EKT’s cross-commodity capabilities across power and weather, and will add to cross-border trading activities, an EKT…
Telco bond issues spark flurry of activity in credit markets
The €5.5 billion new bond issue by France Telecom on Wednesday followed by a smaller €500 million issue by Deutsche Telekom, yesterday, sparked a flurry of activity in the European credit markets.
Crosbie says departure from Moody’s KMV was amicable
Peter Crosbie, outgoing president and chief executive of Moody’s KMV, said his decision to leave the credit risk management company formed when Moody’s bought KMV last year was amicable.
Schroders to enter HK retail hedge fund market
Schroders Investment Management plans to launch its flagship fund of hedge funds products in Hong Kong, says Nicholas Chalmers, associate director in the alternative investment group at Schroders in Hong Kong. The move follows regulatory changes last May…
BNP to launch European power trading desk
BNP Paribas today said it plans to start a European powertrading desk as part of its energy and commodity business.
FDIC plans series of Basel papers
The US-based Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has announced plans to issue a series of papers over the coming months that will analyse the impact that the revisions to the Basel II Accord will have on the US banking system.
Hedge funds provide poor stress-testing disclosure, says Iafe
Hedge funds offer poor stress-testing results and ‘greeks’ disclosure to third parties, according to a new survey by the International Association of Financial Engineers (Iafe).
Dairy futures take off as CME sees record performance
The market for milk futures and options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has set open interest records over the past two days, reaching 7,805 positions on January 15. This month, an average of 1,000 contracts a day have far surpassed average…
Zelengora licenses Javelin’s FixBox
London-based hedge fund Zelengora Capital Management is due to roll out Javelin Technologies’ FixBox product this month, which will allow the convertible arbitrage fund to send and receive trade instructions and confirmations via an Excel spreadsheet.
Icap signs BrokerTec purchase agreement
UK inter-dealer broker Icap has reached an agreement to buy the electronic cash bond and repo trading business units of BrokerTec for up to £181 million. But the deal is still pending clearance by the US Department of Justice, which Icap expects will…
Pension scheme re-alignment has no impact on financial risk, says actuary chief
The discontinuation of final salary pension schemes for employees will not, as many companies assert, reduce financial risk, according to Ronald Bowie, chairman of the pensions board of the UK Faculty and Institute of Actuaries.
Italian government spreads widen on ratings change
Italian bond spreads widened nearly two basis points against the euro swaps curve, following yesterday's announcement by credit agency Standard & Poor’s that it has revised its ratings outlook on the country from stable to negative. By the end of the day…