News
Energy costs and hurricane Katrina hit currency funds
STAMFORD – Currency fund managers took a hit in August against a backdrop of high energy prices and the costly destruction caused by hurricane Katrina.
Merrill adds FX to rates desk
NEW YORK – Harry Lengsfield, global head of rates at Merrill Lynch in New York, has expanded his responsibilities to include FX. He takes on the extended title of managing director and head of global rates and FX, global markets and investment banking.
GFT adds DealBook features
ADA, MICHIGAN – Global Forex Trading (GFT), a provider of real-time currency dealing, pricing and services to forex traders, has added new features to its DealBook FX 2 offering.
Forex hits the wild east
ALMATY – The rapid expansion of the emerging market economies is forcing the development of local currency derivatives markets.
BCV signs up to 360T
LAUSANNE – Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV) has signed as a liquidity provider to German multibank portal 360T.
Wall Street adopts Solaris
LONDON– Version 4.1 of Wall Street System's (WSS) treasury and capital markets system for FX and other asset classes now supports Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 Operating System (OS). It runs on SPARC processor-based Sun systems.
Ex-NAB traders to stand trial
MELBOURNE – Vincent Ficarra and Gianni Gray, two former National Australia Bank (NAB) forex options traders, are to stand trial for their part in the A$360 million rogue trading scandal uncovered by the bank last year.
Oanda boosted by $17m stake from Index Venture
LONDON AND GENEVA – Venture capital firm Index Venture has bought a $17 million stake in global currency trading firm, Oanda.
Hong Kong set for retail yuan NDF contracts
HONG KONG – Authorities in the Special Administrative Region are to follow China's lead in making renminbi non-deliverable forwards (RMB NDFs) available for trading next month.
Barclays offers Chinese research
HONG KONG – Barclays Capital is launching its FX weekly research in traditional and simplified Chinese for the Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland Chinese investor base.
Three into one for GFI
LONDON – GFI Group is bringing together staff split between three locations in London to a single site in Broadgate West.
Logiscope speeds up messaging
LONDON – Logiscope, a provider of market data and post-transaction messaging to the financial community, launched the TradeSTP Vendor Partnership Program last month. The new initiative is set to expand and speed up the certification of Logiscope's deal…
Interactive to switch FX feed
BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS – Data vendor Interactive Data is to switch off an old forex data feed from its ComStock division and replace it with a new one from another part of ComStock, GTIS.
UBS to build post-trade hub
ZURICH – UBS is to set up a single portal to enable all post-trade processing across different asset classes to go through one centre.
Lehman loses sales head
NEW YORK – Mark De Gennaro, head of FX sales at Lehman Brothers in New York, has left the bank, the desk has confirmed.
CLS breaks $4 trillion barrier
NEW YORK – CLS Bank set a new record for the value of payment instructions settled in a single day on last Wednesday, September 21.
Record Q3 for US banks
NEW YORK – US investment banks have posted record-breaking third quarter results, largely arising from a profitable quarter in foreign exchange.
Headhunters out in the cold
LONDON – Banks are increasingly hiring FX staff from competitors directly, forcing search firms to focus more on other asset classes, according to market participants.
Dow Jones adds to forex coverage
HONG KONG – Dow Jones Newswires has launched a website to complement its 'CommentaryPlus' real-time commentary and analysis service.
CST to complete takeover talks
LONDON – Collins Stewart Tullett (CST) plans to complete talks with potential buyers by the end of October, it announced last week.
China heading for free market
SHANGHAI and Beijing – China took two further steps towards currency liberalisation last week, with a widening of the yuan trading band and the introduction of forwards trading for corporates.
StanChart becomes EBS Prime bank
LONDON – Standard Chartered has joined EBS Prime as a prime bank, in a move the platform hopes will boost its penetration in emerging markets.
West LB closes London prop-trading desk
LONDON – German bank WestLB has closed its London prop-trading desk, according to market sources.