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Patrick Pearson, head of financial markets infrastructure within the European Commission's internal market division in Brussels, told Derivatives Week in an exclusive interview with London reporter Rob McGlinchey that the Commission is collecting data from dealers and end-users with a view to drawing up a benchmark of bid/ask spreads. The aim is to help shave users' hedging costs and determine how expensive it would be on top for users to clear their trades.
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Structured credit products chalked up the biggest chunk of trading losses for investment banks in the U.K. over the financial crisis—more than 70% of the total against 13% for prop trading and 3.46% for equity derivatives.
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StormHarbour Partners, the London boutique formed by ex-Citigroup trading executives Antonio Cacorino and Fred Chapey, has added 22 staffers across London and New York in recent weeks, including Won Choi as head of European credit from Citigroup.
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Markit made a last-minute alteration to its iTraxx Japan index rules late Friday, allowing it to replace troubled consumer finance company Aiful with Tokio Marine Nichido Fire Insurance Co. on the eve of the index roll into series 12.
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Barclays Capital is restructuring USD12.3 billion of structured credit assets through a sale to Protium Finance, a newly created Cayman Islands fund. Protium will pay C12 Capital Management—a new management company led by Stephen King, former head of Barclays’ principal mortgage trading group, and Michael Keeley, member of Barclays’ management committee covering European financial institutions—USD40 million a year to manage the assets.
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Credit default swaps on Irish financial names pulled in dramatically this morning following an announcement by the government that it plans to spend EUR77 billion (USD113 billion) to shift banks’ toxic assets to a new state-run ‘bad bank.’
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A group of executives from Argent Funds has formed Raven Rock Capital, a corporate credit relative value shop.
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Goldman Sachs has hired Helen Zhou in a new role selling structured investments to corporate and institutional clients in mainland China.
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The European Commission is soliciting alternatives to proposed capital charges for customized trades and has reached out to various industry bodies and dealers for their thoughts.
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The New York bankruptcy court judge handling the workout of the Lehman Brothers Holdings estate ruled yesterday that Metavante Corp., a counterparty that owes Lehman roughly USD7 million plus interest on a swap, has to pay up. That’s despite language in the International Swaps and Derivatives Association contract that suggested otherwise.