LOOSE CHANGE

David Barnett, co-head of global foreign exchange trading and sales at the Royal Bank of Canada in London, raised £2,570 for the City's Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital after running in the London Marathon April 13. Barnett, a first-time Marathon runner, completed the course in 4:59 hours, despite previously injuring his knee. Barnett, 40, who has already raised £3,000 on behalf of the hospital, says he was determined to squeeze as much money from his colleagues as he could, but adds that any rumours that RBC dealers would be fired if they didn't sponsor him were untrue. "The only thing that kept me going was the thought of Martin Klingsick, our international treasurer, paying me £50 sponsorship if I completed the Marathon," says Barnett. His assistant says: "David was tired, but with a medal around his neck, was in the office first thing on Monday morning."

JP Morgan formally launched Creditmetrics, its credit risk measurement methodology, which uses value-at-risk methods similar to its Riskmetrics service, but applies them to credit rather than market risk. The bank also announced five banks that are endorsing the Creditmetrics methodology: Bank of America, BZW, DMG, SBC and UBS. Credit risk analytics company KMV is also sponsoring the new risk management service. Creditmetrics measures counterparty credit risks associated with a range of instruments, including loans/deposits, commitments, letters of credit, commercial contracts, bonds, swaps and other interest rate derivatives. The bank is offering Creditmetrics free on its Web site, located at http://www.jpmorgan.com.

The European Commission proposed changes in capital adequacy rules that would allow European Union members to calculate set-aside requirements at banks and investment houses based on a company's own risk measurement models, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal Europe.

In a newly released survey of 125 emerging market investors in the Americas, Asia and Europe, Prebon Yamane finds that the majority of respondents are looking to Asia for an increase in future liquidity. Overall, FX products were the most widely traded, followed by fixed income, equity and interest rate products, but spot FX was the leading individual product, followed by non-deliverable forwards; however, in Asia, 41 per cent of activity is in equities. The survey took place between November and January 1997.

Other tidbits highlighted in the survey are that 44 per cent of respondents would like to see increased liquidity in Asia and countries with a longer history of financial markets appear to be trading a more sophisticated product range--hmmm.