LOOSE CHANGE

'European Visions 2000' is the theme of the business sessions at the 4th European Forex Congress, which will be held in Vienna from October 16-19. More than 540 delegates have already registered, but interested parties can still sign-up until September 15. Programmes and registration forms are available at the local Forex Secretariat or at the Congress Secretariat: Austropa Interconvention, Ursula Rabas, PO Box 30, A 1043 Vienna, Austria. The telephone number is +(43) 1-589-25-116 and fax is +(43) 1-586-71-27.

SBC Warburg's name just got a bit longer. Swiss Bank Corporation has completed the acquisition of Dillon, Read & Co, so its global investment banking arm will now operate under the name SBC Warburg Dillon Read. SBC's section 20 subsidiary in the US will also be called SBC Warburg Dillon Read.

Global Currency Management (GCMI) has opened the doors to its flagship headquarters in Miami, says president and founder Tony Baldwin. GCMI is a currency trading company specializing in the US dollar against the major currencies.

Recently released figures from the Philippine central bank show that foreign exchange reserves rose to PHP218.4 billion (US$7.22 billion) during the week ended August 1, from PHP212.9 billion the previous week. The central bank's reserve funds are believed to have increased due to recent liquidity tightening measures that were imposed to prevent speculative attacks on the beleaguered domestic currency. Meanwhile in Taiwan, the country's central bank reports that its FX reserves slipped 1.4 per cent by the end of July, falling to US$88.77 billion from US$90.03 billion at the end of June. The decline in Taiwan's reserves, more than half of which are in US dollar-denominated deposits, was attributed to the recent appreciation of the US dollar against other major Asian currencies, say bank officials.

ISDA issued a statement saying that New York's "primacy as a centre of international finance" has been reinforced by recently passed legislation that provides for the continuity of contracts written under New York law when the euro is introduced. Through an amendment to the state's general obligation law, the euro has been designated as a commercially acceptable substitute for the original currency of a European country in which the contract was written.

Deutsche Terminborse (DTB) will extend the range of maturities in the three-month Euromark futures contract from two years to three years on September 16. Contract months will be available for trading up to the settlement calculation day of the next three calendar months, as well as the next 11 quarter-end months.