News
OTC derivatives volumes up 11%, says BIS
Outstanding notional volumes for the over-the-counter derivatives market stood at $111 trillion at end-December 2001 – an 11% increase from the end of June 2001, according to the latest statistics released by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Risk managers leapfrog lending officers in bank hierarchy, says Greenspan
US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said risk managers are now overtaking loan officers in the decision-making hierarchy at financial institutions, with new quantitative risk management techniques a key factor behind this transition.
Chinese fund adopts Askari
Guotai Fund Management, a China-based fund manager with $900 million in assets, has adopted Askari’s TruView risk management system as part of it internal risk management upgrade.
Cantor's Fry to head TradeSpark
Harry Fry has stepped up from his position as managing director of Cantor Fitzgerald’s energy derivatives and market data business to become president of TradeSpark, the electronic energy commodity market-place formed by Cantor and its online brokerage…
Crédit Lyonnais boosts Asian team
French bank Crédit Lyonnais has made three new appointments to its Asian derivatives operations, as part of a drive to boost its interest rates teams in the region.
FXall hooks up 11 more liquidity providers
FXall has integrated 11 more liquity providers to its online foreign exchange portal, taking its total to 34.
Regulators to review abolition of Basel II op risk floor
Global banking regulators have asked their technical experts to look at the conditions necessary to eliminate the floor limiting gains for banks using advanced approaches to measuring operational risk under Basel II.
‘Witch hunt’ by regulators hits energy investor confidence
Current investigations by regulators into as many as 150 energy companies after the crises of California and Enron, amount to a ‘witch hunt’, according to a senior executive at Dynegy.
CreditGrades launches with three backers
Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs have joined JP Morgan as backers of CreditGrades, an online equity-based model that assesses the credit quality of publicly traded companies.
DrKW adds to credit derivatives team
Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has hired two ex-Gen Re staff to boost its credit derivatives team in New York.
Average 10% cut in SME loan charges possible under Basel II
Loans to smaller businesses under the Basel II bank Accord would on average require 10% less protective capital than loans to larger companies under plans being worked on by global banking regulators.
Icap beefs-up Fra-Cross staff to meet demand
UK interdealer broker Icap has added new staff for its electronic forward rate agreement (FRA) matching system Fra-Cross, as volumes and demand from banks increase. It has signed up more than 30 banks for Fra-Cross, and the number of transactions per run…
WestLB raids HSBC to rebuild New York forex
Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) is rebuilding its New York forex division with a raid on HSBC resulting in two senior management hires.
Deutsche Bank adds institutional sales staff in London
Deutsche Bank has added several staff with hedge fund derivatives sales experience and shifted several more within its institutional client group in New York and London.
Credit Markets Update: Fiat sees curve invert
The cost of credit protection on Italian car manufacturer Fiat widened 140-150 basis points today, after rating agency Standard and Poor’s put the company on credit watch.
UK and Danish greenhouse gas allowance schemes see first swap
Anglo-Dutch energy major Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Danish electricity supplier Elsam completed the first greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions swap between government-backed allowance schemes on May 7.
Rates Markets Update: Swaps see low flows with trading in narrow range
US dollar swaps continued to trade near record-low levels. Ten-year swaps ended the week at 54.5 basis points, largely unchanged from the previous Friday. Five-year spreads narrowed 8bp to 45bp. This contraction was nearly all caused by the five-year $90…
$7.3 billion in risk transferred in first index-linked synthetic CDO
JP Morgan Chase's groundbreaking index-linked synthetic collateralised debt obligation (CDO) transaction, dubbed Horizon, has transferred $7.3 billion in risk - making it one of the largest-ever synthetic CDOs. The bank had previously refused to disclose…
Park Place poised to launch Italian hedge fund
London-based hedge fund Park Place Capital plans to launch its first hedge fund in Italy. The firm, which is currently awaiting approval from the Italian regulators, hopes to launch sometime later this year, said Philip Hands, a partner at the London…
Regulator exposes potential market manipulation by Enron
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Ferc) has requested that energy firms supply detailed trading data to ascertain if there was any market manipulation during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001.
FSA proposes new capital adequacy framework
Britain’s principal business regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), is seeking comments on its proposed capital adequacy framework, which is designed to more closely align the amount of capital a company holds with the risks it takes.
Application Networks comes out from shadows
Application Networks, a software provider specialising in software for leading capital market firms, has announced its first Wall Street customer.
Travelers risk head says underwriting back at the fore
The role of the underwriter has returned to prominence within the insurance industry, according to Scott Belden, managing director of risk and reinsurance for Travelers Property Casualty.
No “new role” for RCC in Japanese NPL clean-up, claims ING
The decision by Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial (MTFG) to step up its sell-off of bad loans to the Resolution and Collection Corporation (RCC) will have little tangible effect on cleaning up Japanese financial institutions’ burgeoning non-performing loans …