Foreign exchange
Korea's KEB begins trading on EBS
SEOUL - Interdealer broker Icap is deepening its footprint in the emerging markets, with Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) now using its spot-broking system, EBS.
ICE launches FX futures
ATLANTA - The Intercontinental-Exchange (ICE) is launching ICE Millions, a suite of foreign exchange futures contracts, on November 6, in the latest move by an exchange to capitalise on fears over counterparty credit risk.
FXMarketSpace abandoned
CHICAGO & LONDON - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Thomson Reuters have confirmed their joint venture platform FXMarketSpace will be shut down, ending speculation over the system's future.
Icap spot forex surges 60% after Lehman Brothers collapses
LONDON - Spot foreign exchange volumes at Icap skyrocketed by more than 60% on September 15 and 16, days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Another FX trader fined
STOCKHOLM - Sweden's financial regulator has imposed a maximum penalty on Forex Bank for insufficient money laundering controls, signalling a global clampdown by regulators on risk management failings at retail foreign exchange institutions.
OMS vendors tackle multi-asset risk
LONDON - Order management system (OMS) vendors are enhancing their multi-asset pre-trade analytics to address the growing trend among financial institutions of broadening the asset classes and geographies in which they trade.
Sentimental value
Naomi Fink, Japan strategist in global markets sales and trading at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo, assesses the slump in corporate sentiment in Japan, and what this bodes for the country's economic growth
Carpe diem: forex beats the retreat
Despite inconsistent liquidity since mid-September, volumes at major trading platforms continue to remain buoyant.
CFTC fines FX fraudsters $24m
WASHINGTON, DC - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained orders for five traders to pay $11.7 million in restitution and disgorgement, and $12.25 million in civil monetary penalties for selling and soliciting illegal foreign exchange…
Gold rush on Lehman's European FX team
LONDON - Dealers are willing to pay top dollar for Lehman Brothers' foreign exchange team in Europe, following the failure of administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to agree a sale of the defunct bank's European fixed-income unit last week.
GFT deepens footprint in London
LONDON - GFT is expanding its London presence, with two hires in the city.
New Fortex FX v5 cuts trade times
REDWOOD SHORES, CALIFORNIA - Multi-asset trading platform vendor Fortex has released its fifth version of Fortex FX, which cuts average roundtrip trade times to five milliseconds from 40 while supporting 500 trades per second.
RBS launches new forex index
LONDON - RBS launched FX Radar Index, an automated index linked to 20 emerging market currencies, on October 1.
Forex hedging up in US
NEW YORK - Foreign exchange hedging ratios for 2009 year-end by US corporates reached historic levels in the third quarter, as companies sought to cover rising risk from the US dollar's upturn.
Margin FX boss Pryor leaves Cantor
LONDON - Steve Pryor, formerly director of margin foreign exchange at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe in London, has left the company.
OTP in USD/RUB first
MOSCOW - OTP Bank conducted its first USD/RUB trade as a market maker on LavaFX last Monday (September 22), with Dresdner Kleinwort as its prime broker.
Senior Lehman Brothers Asia staff keep their bonuses
HONG KONG - Nomura has agreed to guarantee the 2008 cash bonuses of at least 300 of Lehman Brothers' senior managing directors and vice-presidents in Asia working in fixed income, structured products and credit, said industry sources.
JPM offers new FX platform
LONDON - JP Morgan last week launched MorganDirect, a new proprietary foreign exchange trading platform that will eventually replace the incumbent JPex system.
EPFR tests EM forex flows
BOSTON - Fund flows data vendor EPFR Global is testing a new dataset that shows money flows into and out of emerging market (EM) and global currencies.
FXPB versus CCP put to the test
With concern over counterparty credit risk at such elevated levels, some question what this will ultimately mean for the smaller banks out in the market-place.
Barclays launches forex trend index
LONDON - Barclays Capital launched the Barclays Adaptive FX Trend Index last week, the latest in its range of investable foreign exchange indexes.
Strong Q3 for Goldman and Morgan Stanley
LONDON - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley revealed strong third-quarter performances for their currencies operations, despite analysts casting doubt over the future of both businesses as standalone investment banks.