Regulation
Bush war stance sinks dollar
NEW YORK -- The US dollar slid to a four-year low against the euro last week, as US president George Bush’s stance over Iraq continued to harden.
Vol surge expected from east Europe
WARSAW -- Political events in countries slated to join the European Union and the euro are set to trigger a wave of FX volatility in emerging European countries, market participants told FX Week .
Rand reverses 2001 downtrend
JOHANNESBURG -- Interest rate yields, gold prices and a budget announcement powered the South African rand to a 20-month high against the dollar last week.
CLS settles a trillion a day
NEW YORK -- Continuous Linked Settlement, the new settlement service for foreign exchange, settled a record $1 trillion in FX payments on February 18.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Combined sales teams take off
LONDON -- The FX sales dealer may soon be a thing of the past if a new trend for cross-product sales teams catches on.
BoA HK focuses on debt capital raising
HONG KONG -- Bank of America has hired Abidin Siregar in a newly created role as head of global markets, Hong Kong. He will cover sales, trading and research, and build the bank’s debt capital raising business across the region.
Analysts mull Iraq FX fallout
LONDON -- With geopolitical tensions continuing to dominate FX markets, analysts are now looking beyond any potential conflict at the possible fallout and its impact on currencies.
Heavyweights tackle rising un-named counterparty risk
NEW YORK -- Top FX banks are joining forces with central banks and industry groups to eliminate un-named counterparty risk.
BoA HK focuses on debt capital raising
HONG KONG -- Bank of America has hired Abidin Siregar in a newly created role as head of global markets, Hong Kong. He will cover sales, trading and research, and build the bank’s debt capital raising business across the region.
Intervention risk looms
LONDON -- As the US prepares to invade Iraq, FX dealers could soon be facing their own battle against central banks.
New US laws could hit retail market
NEW YORK -- New laws being drawn up by US regulators could hit volumes in the US retail FX market, officials said last week.
Hungary: when the funds go marching in
The Hungarian forint’s peg should be scrapped before another speculative attack on the currency, say Marios Maratheftis and David Mann, economists at Standard Chartered Bank in London
Busy year ahead for FX committees
LONDON -- The forex committees of the eurozone, US and UK’s central banks will have a full agenda this year, senior officials told FX Week .
Dollar routed again as war looms
NEW YORK -- The dollar was roundly routed last week as tensions between the US and Iraq were ratcheted up a notch.
Dealers prepare for worst from gloomy bonus season
LONDON/NEW YORK -- Bonus payments in FX for 2002 could be slashed by half following a difficult year in forex, traders and recruiters told FX Week .
Gain Capital refutes fraud accusation
NEW JERSEY -- Online retail FX player Gain Capital last week responded to claims that it acted fraudulently after a lawsuit was filed by a group of clients of Sterling Forex, a money management firm.