Infrastructure
City Index drops three in London
LONDON - Retail trading company City Index laid off three foreign exchange staff from its margin FX provider, IFX Markets, in London last Thursday (October 16), as it integrates the FX business with recently acquired FX Solutions.
BarCap picks Caplin for rates
LONDON - Barclays Capital has signed a contract to purchase web-based application Caplin Trader for its fixed-income electronic commerce system.
Interbank lending eases further
LONDON - The Ted spread, along with overnight and three-month Libor, fell for the fourth day in succession after European governments announced bail-out packages on Monday (October 13), and the US followed suit on Tuesday.
Credit Suisse launches currency basket options
LONDON - Credit Suisse has introduced currency basket options on Merlin, its proprietary electronic foreign exchange structured products trading platform, in response to client demand.
Caplin Systems a star onboarder
LONDON - Caplin Systems, a London-based web technology vendor, has signed two major European banks to its multi-asset trading platform, Caplin Trader.
Colombia fruitful for Citi settlement
BOGOTA & NEW YORK - Citi's Colombia-based domestic settlement service began settling more than $1.3 billion in FX trades daily in September, representing in excess of 80% of the Colombian wholesale FX market.
JDFX gets smart with Kontrol
ZURICH - Foreign exchange trading company JDFX has capitalised on an increasing focus on risk management within financial markets by launching Kontrol, a system built to eliminate inefficiencies and dangers caused by calculating risk several times a day…
360T offers multi-leg swaps
FRANKFURT - Multi-dealer trading vendor 360 Treasury Systems (360T) is set to introduce multi-leg foreign exchange swap trading on its cross-product trading platform, 360T TEX, in response to client demand.
Króna in chaos during Iceland's meltdown
REYKJAVIK - Confusion reigned in Icelandic króna trading last week, as the country's central bank, Sedlabanki, abandoned its peg to a basket of nine currencies a day after it was effected.
Decline continues on Parker FX
STAMFORD, CT - The Parker FX Index made a loss of 0.73% in August, falling further from a negative 0.11% the previous month, as the sharp appreciation in the US dollar caught out 60% of managers.
FXMPG tackles FX practices
BRUSSELS - The Foreign Exchange Market Practice Group (FXMPG) plans to hold its first meeting in January, to begin establishing global market practice for foreign exchange activities.
RealStream Margin revamped
LONDON - Cognotec is set to roll out the latest version of its web-based margin trading system, RealStream Margin 3.0, in response to market demand for efficiency and enhanced risk management products.
FXMarketSpace abandoned
CHICAGO & LONDON - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Thomson Reuters have confirmed their joint venture platform FXMarketSpace will be shut down, ending speculation over the system's future.
Cutting costs
Pat Lefler, director, product marketing, at Wall Street Systems in New York, looks at ways smaller banks could reduce their trade-processing costs and remain competitive
OMS vendors tackle multi-asset risk
LONDON - Order management system (OMS) vendors are enhancing their multi-asset pre-trade analytics to address the growing trend among financial institutions of broadening the asset classes and geographies in which they trade.
Iosco turns spotlight on commodities
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) are to lead an international regulators' group overseeing the commodity markets.
Gold rush on Lehman's European FX team
LONDON - Dealers are willing to pay top dollar for Lehman Brothers' foreign exchange team in Europe, following the failure of administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to agree a sale of the defunct bank's European fixed-income unit last week.
US meltdown spurs central clearer debate
LONDON & NEW YORK - The fallout from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and implosion of insurance company AIG has spurred renewed debate over the central-counterparty model for spot foreign exchange, as concerns over counterparty risk take centre stage.
Saxo Bank cuts 400 jobs
COPENHAGEN & LONDON - Saxo Bank is today (September 29) shedding up to 400 jobs globally as part of plans to streamline its business, officials tell FX Week .
Citi gains BoC Hong Kong for CLS
HONG KONG - Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BoC HK) has signed an agreement to use Citi's Global Transaction Services as its continuous-linked settlement (CLS) nostro agent for US dollar.
JPM offers new FX platform
LONDON - JP Morgan last week launched MorganDirect, a new proprietary foreign exchange trading platform that will eventually replace the incumbent JPex system.