News
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.
ODL acquires Fixi's clients
LONDON - ODL Securities has acquired the full client list of London-based investment house Fixi, a senior official at ODL has told FX Week .
LatAm head leaves RBS
NEW YORK - Alistair Boyd, head of Latin American local markets at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in New York, has left the bank, according to sources close to the matter.
IG buys 87.5% of FXOnline Japan
TOKYO - IG Group, a London-based spread-betting company is acquiring an 87.5% stake worth about $207 million in Tokyo-based margin foreign exchange trading company FXOnline Japan.
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 .
Icap's NDFs trading down but not out
SINGAPORE - Current market volatility is hurting non-deliverable forwards (NDF) trading on Icap's electronic spot-broking system EBS, but the broker is optimistic about the development of this market.
Nomura rumours abound
LONDON - Nomura International was speculated to be in talks to buy the fixed-income divisions of Lehman Brothers, including the US dealer's foreign exchange operations last 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.
Forex hedging up in US
NEW YORK - Foreign exchange hedging ratios for 2009 year-end by US corporates reached historic levels in the third quarter, as companies sought to cover rising risk from the US dollar's upturn.
Margin FX boss Pryor leaves Cantor
LONDON - Steve Pryor, formerly director of margin foreign exchange at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe in London, has left the company.
WisdomTree adds EM ETFs
NEW YORK - WisdomTree, a New York-based guarantor, is set to introduce 25 new currency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with a focus on emerging market currencies, as it continues to deepen its footprint in this market.
EM currencies will weather the storm
LONDON - Analysts at Barings and State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) expect emerging market (EM) currencies to continue on a trajectory of strength, despite suffering bouts of weaknesses amid the current market turmoil.
OTP in USD/RUB first
MOSCOW - OTP Bank conducted its first USD/RUB trade as a market maker on LavaFX last Monday (September 22), with Dresdner Kleinwort as its prime broker.
Senior Lehman Brothers Asia staff keep their bonuses
HONG KONG - Nomura has agreed to guarantee the 2008 cash bonuses of at least 300 of Lehman Brothers' senior managing directors and vice-presidents in Asia working in fixed income, structured products and credit, said industry sources.
Tullett Prebon loses senior Asia staff
SINGAPORE - Tullett Prebon has lost two senior executives in Asia.
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.
EPFR tests EM forex flows
BOSTON - Fund flows data vendor EPFR Global is testing a new dataset that shows money flows into and out of emerging market (EM) and global currencies.
Barclays launches forex trend index
LONDON - Barclays Capital launched the Barclays Adaptive FX Trend Index last week, the latest in its range of investable foreign exchange indexes.
NAB grows structured products in Asia
SINGAPORE - National Australia Bank's investment bank, nabCapital, has hired Peter Zeitsch as a director to build a structured products business in Singapore.
Nomura builds in emerging markets
LONDON - Nomura has hired a five-strong emerging markets foreign exchange team, four of whom formerly worked at Bear Stearns.
Strong Q3 for Goldman and Morgan Stanley
LONDON - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley revealed strong third-quarter performances for their currencies operations, despite analysts casting doubt over the future of both businesses as standalone investment banks.
UniCredit hires in HK, loses in NY
HONG KONG - UniCredit has hired Danny Khoo in a senior position at its spot desk in Hong Kong.