News
CME to launch Eagle Project in mid-November
US futures exchange, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), said this week that it plans a mid-November launch for its Eagle Project, which will permit electronic calendar spread trading on its Globex electronic trading platform.
CSFB launches fixed-income indexes on Bloomberg
Swiss bank Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has released its Liquid Global fixed-income indexes on data vendor Bloomberg's data terminals. CSFB clients will be able to access all of CSFB's liquid bond indexes, including the Liquid US Corporate Index …
Fed’s Gordy criticises Basel II procyclicality adjustment
The procyclicality ‘smoothing’ adjustment technique likely to form part of the Basel II capital Accord is sub-optimal, according to Michael Gordy, a senior economist in the research and statistics division of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve…
Japan's SMBC prepares credit derivatives desk
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), one of the country’s big four banking groups, is planning to set up a dedicated Japanese credit derivatives desk by the end of the year.
Goldman Sachs appoints derivatives marketeer for Swiss clients
Goldman Sachs has expanded its European fixed-income corporates team with the appointment of Maroan Maizar to run its foreign exchange and derivatives marketing effort for Swiss clients.
JP Morgan Chase taps Juice in New York
JP Morgan Chase’s North American Credit Markets group in New York has deployed New York-based Juice Software’s technology to consolidate and deliver real-time prices from multiple sources, according to officials involved.
Small coffee producers in Nicaragua access risk markets
The first international price insurance transaction for small coffee producers in Latin America was implemented last week in Nicaragua, with support from the World Bank’s Commodity Risk Management Group (CRMG), a unit of the International Task Force on…
FX options business booming
Banks are expanding FX options teams in London and Asia in response to increased interest in derivatives from clients, officials told RiskNews’ sister publication FX Week .
UBS hires Asian credit trader
UBS Warburg has bolstered its Asian credit derivatives team, with the appointment of Anders Haagan as director of credit derivatives trading in Singapore.
Alpha Investment Management appoints new managing director for risk management
Alpha Investment Management, a provider of hedge funds and fund of funds, with $2.2 billion in assets under management, has appointed Bruce Schreiber as managing director for risk management. Schreiber will be responsible for overseeing all of Alpha's…
Deutsche Postbank ramps-up FX trading
German savings bank Deutsche Postbank is to add seven more foreign exchange traders to its new trading floor in Frankfurt, a spokesperson told RiskNews’ sister publication FX Week . When completed, the expansion - which started with the relocation of its…
Goldman’s Ehrlich claims hedge funds do not move markets
Goldman Sachs’ London-based head of prime brokerage in Europe and Asia, Alexander Ehrlich, has claimed there is no apparent correlation between the volume of short selling of stocks by hedge funds and market direction and volatility.
ABN Amro to release second iBoxx-linked note
ABN Amro is to issue a second credit-linked note early next week, called iBoxx 40, following the release of its iBoxx 50 credit-linked note in July. iBoxx 40 will be the first index-derived credit product issued in Swiss francs, with an initial issue…
Robeco to offer exotic equity derivatives-based fund
Dutch asset manager Robeco plans to launch a guaranteed fund product that uses exotic equity derivatives.
Japanese credit spreads widen on corporate bankruptcy fears
Credit protection on Japanese corporate debt widened this week, as a number of hard-line reformers were appointed to a banking task force committee by Heizo Takenaka, the newly appointed head of the Financial Service Agency (FSA), the country’s financial…
Credit spreads for European financial debt protection widen
The cost of credit protection for European banks has widened significantly this week as negative fundamentals dominated market sentiment. Five-year credit default swaps for major European banks widened between 1 to 10 basis points for senior protection…
JP Morgan may boost capital for equity-linked FX trading model
Larry Kantor, global head of FX strategy at JP Morgan Chase, said the bank was mulling whether to put more proprietary capital behind a trading model that measures FX risk appetite using cues from the equities market, called the Liquidity, Credit and…
Putnam Investments mulls hedge fund debut
Putnam Investments, a $260 billion asset manager in Boston, Massachusetts, may soon join the ranks of other large money managers and launch new alternative investments funds, including hedge funds.
Icap acquires APB Energy
Inter-dealer broker Icap has acquired APB Energy for an initial cash payment of $15.5 million. Further payments, which are contingent on the future earnings of the business, will be made over four years, Icap said. APB brokers gas, electricity, weather…
Gifford Fong Associates to advise Fitch on revamping credit analysis
Rating agency Fitch has engaged Gifford Fong Associates, a Lafayette, California-based fixed-income analytics firm, to reassess its credit risk metrics and develop new rating methodologies for its structured finance and risk management activities.
Lehman Brothers hires Singapore Branch GM
Lehman Brothers has hired Catherine Loh as a senior vice-president and general manager of its Singapore branch, effective next Monday.
Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait signs up to SunGard risk management product
Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait (BBK) has signed up to use SunGard Treasury Systems’ Quantum package to manage its back-office treasury operations.
Deutsche appoints head of relative value group in Americas
Deutsche Bank has appointed Erik Falk as head of its global markets division’s Relative Value group sales team, covering all credit products including cash bonds and credit derivatives. The group targets institutional clients including reinsurance…
Loan Pricing Corporation launches European loan mark-to-market service
Global loan market intelligence company the Loan Pricing Corporation (LPC), a division of Reuters, has launched a customised mark-to-market service for European credits. Potential users include bank loan portfolio managers and risk managers, CLO…