News
European banks down in Q3
ZURICH, FRANKFURT & AMSTERDAM – European FX results were down for the third quarter, with only Credit Suisse managing to beat last year's figures.
ODL moves into spread betting
LONDON – Broker ODL is to establish an FX spread-betting operation to target UK consumers early next year, the company said.
Custom House opens new Asia-Pacific headquarters
AUCKLAND – Foreign exchange specialist Custom House has opened a new office in New Zealand and made it the regional head office for Asia Pacific.
Banks build forex in Asia
JAKARTA & SINGAPORE – There have been senior moves at major banks in the Asia-Pacific region this week, as banks look to boost their teams in the region.
US banks report profits down in third quarter
NEW YORK & CHARLOTTE, N CAROLINA – Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America released positive earnings reports for the third quarter, but all failed to profit from their FX businesses.
Fix Protocol upgrades its forex messaging system
NEW YORK – Forex messaging is to be enhanced, with the latest version of Fix Protocol set for launch in November.
China bans pricing in offshore NDF market
BEIJING – Chinese officials last week banned local banks from quoting prices in the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in an effort to boost trading onshore, said analysts.
Fimat opens banking branch in Hong Kong
HONG KONG – Brokerage firm Fimat International Banque opened a bank branch in Hong Kong last week, which will act as a regional hub for the firm.
London's forex share continues to increase
LONDON – The UK continues to be the centre for foreign exchange, accounting for nearly a third of global foreign exchange turnover, according to research released last week.
Slovakian bank adopts TremaSuite software
BRATISLAVA – The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) has adopted Wall Street Systems' TremaSuite treasury and asset management software to manage its front, middle and back office banking functions.
Aegis seeks to introduce forex industry standard
NEW YORK – Aegis Software has developed a framework that it is seeking to introduce as an industry standard in tracking workflow for FX and futures trading.
Banks are ignoring Mifid threat, says Celent
BRUSSELS – The forex industry will be beset by law suits and regulatory action if it continues to ignore the Mifid directive coming into force next year, according to a research consultancy.
LatentZero enables hedge funds to use Capstone software
LONDON – Technology vendor LatentZero last week added functionality to enable hedge funds to use its Capstone portfolio analysis software.
ABN Amro
HANOI – ABN Amro violated Vietnamese banking regulations, according to an audit report by the State Bank of Vietnam.
Grupo Santander goes live with SuperDerivatives platform
MADRID – Grupo Santander has licensed SuperDerivatives' commodities and energy real-time pricing and analytics platform SD-CM, as it expands its European and Latin American energy and metals derivatives business.
China bans pricing in offshore NDF market
BEIJING – Chinese officials last week banned local banks from quoting prices in the offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in an effort to boost trading onshore, said analysts.
RBS veteran McHugh retires
LONDON – Cian McHugh, global head of FX services, last week retired from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in the latest in a series of senior departures.
GFT adds seven new currency pairs; range now totals 64
ADA, MICHIGAN – Global Forex Trading (GFT) last week announced the addition of seven new currency pairs to its list of tradable currencies.
China and Indonesia amend bilateral swap
BEIJING & JAKARTA – The People's Bank of China (PBoC) and Bank Indonesia (BI) have raised the value of their bilateral swap agreement (BSA) under the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) to $4 billion.
Reuters attributes Q3 results to growth in algorithmic trading
LONDON – Growth in algorithmic trading and strong FX market activity has influenced Reuters' higher than expected third quarter profit reports.
WestLB expands its commodities desk
Düsseldorf – WestLB is establishing a new multi-product commodities trading desk in Düsseldorf that will cater to domestic and global clients.