News
Hotspot FXi opens in Europe
NEW JERSEY -- Online institutional FX trading platform Hotspot FXi has hired Rakesh Shah to head its new European office in London.
FX offers hope for Reuters
LONDON -- Dealing 3000, Reuters’ FX trading system, lost some ground last year, but FX provided some joy for the information and technology giant in its annual results published last week.
ABN Amro overhauls FM division
AMSTERDAM -- ABN Amro last week completed a thorough overhaul of its financial markets division, in a reorgnisation that will affect foreign exchange in two key ways.
Market static as uncertainty rules
LONDON -- There was little action in G3 FX last week, as the geopolitical stand-off over Iraq extended to the markets.
BoA props up trading business
BoA props up trading business
Technology Briefs
CL uses City Networks for CLS
RBA unwinds Australian dollar holding
SYDNEY -- The Reserve Bank of Australia took profits on its Australian dollar holdings earlier this year, selling nearly A$500 million, according to the bank’s February bulletin.
China forex volumes rise
BEIJING -- Forex turnover in the Chinese market rocketed by 73% in January, according to data made public last week.
Dollar downtrend halts decline in US hedging
NEW YORK -- The US dollar’s decline in recent months has sparked an increase in hedging activity among US companies, six months after senior FX officials reported that many firms were unhedged.
Trading places
BoA hires China head
eSpeed to add spot and forwards forex
LONDON -- Electronic broker eSpeed is adding spot and forwards FX broking to its platform in the second half of this year to cater for traders who cover multiple asset classes.
BIS expands derivatives data
BASEL -- The Bank for International Settlements said last week that it is expanding its statistics on banks’ country risk exposures to include data on derivatives exposures to individual countries.
Rusnak lessons still unheeded
NEW YORK -- Global banks are yet to implement key recommendations to limit rogue trading losses, one year on from John Rusnak’s record $700 million forex fraud.
Tech briefs
CBA adds FXall link
BoA loses global market head
NEW YORK -- Duncan Goldie-Morrison, Bank of America’s global markets chief will leave the firm at the end of this month following a reorganisation of BoA’s global markets group.
eSpeed to add spot and forwards forex
LONDON -- Electronic broker eSpeed is adding spot and forwards FX broking to its platform in the second half of this year to cater for traders who cover multiple asset classes.
ABN reports FX uptick
LONDON -- Dutch bank ABN Amro reported a 40% rise in FX dealing income for 2002 in a report released last week.
Goldman to add FX to research portal
LONDON -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs will add FX to a new centralised data and research platform in March.
Trema corners central bank FX market
STOCKHOLM -- Swedish technology firm Trema is tightening its grip on the market for central bank FX technology, senior officials at the firm told FX Week .
GFI closes FX options mark-to-market gap
NEW YORK -- Solving the problem of marking FX options to market came a step closer to being resolved last week, with the launch of a new ‘revaluation fixing’ service from New York-based interdealer broker GFI.
Forex unhurt as ING cuts in New York
NEW YORK -- Foreign exchange has been spared in a cull of staff at ING in New York. Only one forex position was cut, said a bank spokesperson, in a spate of departures in January and February.
Politics, economy deal double blow to sterling
LONDON -- The British pound was at the mercy of economic and political concerns last week as it plummeted to a three-and-a-half-year low against the euro.
Blix report boosts dollar
NEW YORK -- The US dollar rallied slightly in the wake of United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix’s report on Iraq late last Friday.
BBH takes FX Index Link online
NEW YORK -- US custodian Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) has put its FX Index Link trading service online.