News
Tremont appoints UK managing director
Tremont Advisors, a consulting and information provider for the alternative investment business, has hired Rupert Allan as managing director of its UK subsidiary Tremont TASS (Europe). Allan will oversee all marketing and business development for Tremont…
Credit Markets Update: High correlation to equity markets continues
The credit default swap market continued to see significant volatility and trading activity in Europe this week, as the high degree of correlation to the equity markets persisted, according to traders in London today.
S&P acquires Default Filter from IQ Financial
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has acquired the Default Filter credit risk management assets from risk management software company IQ Financial Systems.
Invesco to use JP Morgan Chase's TradeStarr to reduce op risk
Invesco Asset Management – the UK fund arm of Amvescap, which has about $400 billion in funds under management – is to use JP Morgan Chase’s trade settlement tracking and relative ranking (TradeStarr) service to statistically rank the settlement…
UBS Warburg unveils North American interest rate and FX hires
UBS Warburg has hired Glenn Taitz and William Ludington as executive directors in its North American interest rate and foreign exchange divisions. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, the pair will report to Michael Ice, head of marketing and structuring of…
Goldman restructures credit derivatives sales
Goldman Sachs has restructured its North American credit derivatives sales team to focus on its 40 largest clients.
UK details three-phase Basel II implementation plan
UK regulators said today they plan a three-phase implementation of the Basel II capital Accord and parallel European Union banking rules with a target date of December 31, 2006.
Principia Partners boosts staff for global expansion
New Jersey-based financial technology provider, Principia Partners, is increasing its sales and marketing staff. The recruitment drive is part of a global expansion strategy for its global capital markets front-to-back office system, which supports…
One-fifth of Hong Kong investors will consider hedge funds
Around one-fifth of Hong Kong investors that currently invest in traditional mutual funds said they may buy hedge funds, following the Special Administrative Region’s decision in May to open up the hedge fund market to retail investors, according to a…
MSCI hedge fund index offers 10% better return than equities
Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI), the provider of benchmark indexes for financial institutions, has released the first performance data for its newly established family of hedge fund indexes. The results were compiled from back-dated data…
Icor plans to offer electronic rate swaps at year-end
Electronic interdealer broker Icor plans to offer dollar-denominated interest rate swaps at the turn of the year. The New York-based broker, 50% owned by global information services company Reuters, currently trades only foreign exchange options.
GFI obtains $50 million credit line to support derivatives business
GFI Group, a New-York based provider of software, brokerage and data services to the derivatives and cash markets, has obtained a new $50 million credit facility, consisting of a $30 million revolving credit facility and a $20 million term loan. This…
SG prepares fund of hedge funds for Hong Kong retail investors
SG Securities, a unit of France’s Société Générale, is preparing to launch a new capital guaranteed fund on a basket of global hedge funds by the fourth quarter of the year, according to the unit's Hong Kong-based managing director for equity derivatives…
DrKW takes ex-Deutsche quartet for securities lending team
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has hired Fredrik Carstens, Anthony Frieze, Alison Briggs and Jay Schreyer to its newly-created agency securities lending team.
Triple Point launches upgrade of energy trading system
Triple Point Technology, a provider of commodity trading and risk management systems based in Westport, Connecticut, has released version 2.0 of Power XL, its advanced trading system for deregulated energy markets.
FOA slams single European market plans for commodity derivatives
The London-based Futures and Options Association (FOA) today said it was concerned that plans to include commodity derivatives within the European Commission’s new Investment Services Directive (ISD) and related Capital Adequacy Directive (CAD) could…
Op risk advances likely after dropping of Basel II floor, says Moody’s
Further advances in banks’ operational risk measurement and management are likely to be stimulated by the decision last week by global banking supervisors to drop the op risk ‘floor’ in their Basel II bank protective capital proposals, credit-rating…
Euronext maps out derivatives systems migration
Derivatives traded on Euronext Brussels and Euronext Paris will migrate within nine months to Liffe Connect, the electronic trading system developed by the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (Liffe) before its takeover of £555…
UK watchdog welcomes banks’ decision to confirm customer identity
UK financial regulators welcomed a decision by the six major UK banks today to confirm the identity of their customers to help the international drive against money laundering.
Samsung Life shortlists three swap counterparties for cross-border RMBS
South Korean insurer Samsung Life is preparing to issue Korea’s first cross-border residential mortgage-backed securitisation (RMBS) to be launched in the third quarter of the year, and as part of the transaction, it has shortlisted three potential…
Op risk advances likely after dropping of Basel II floor, says Moody’s
Further advances in banks’ operational risk measurement and management are likely to be stimulated by the decision last week by global banking supervisors to drop the op risk ‘floor’ in their Basel II bank protective capital proposals, credit-rating…
US Credit Market Update: Credit spreads see another volatile week
The continued weak performance of US equity markets caused bearish investors to seek credit protection in the US last week. This caused volatility in the US credit derivatives market, with most company credit spreads widened in relatively high levels of…
FOA slams single European market plans for commodity derivatives
The London-based Futures and Options Association (FOA) today said it was concerned that plans to include commodity derivatives within the European Commission’s new Investment Services Directive (ISD) and related Capital Adequacy Directive (CAD) could…
Bear Stearns names Aisola head of convertibles research
Bear Stearns has hired Rao Aisola from Morgan Stanley as head of convertible bond research in New York.