Foreign exchange
Forex results strong in Q4
NEW YORK - Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley reported strong results for foreign exchange in the fourth quarter of 2007, despite challenging market conditions.
Yen carry traders dealt New Year blow
LONDON & TOKYO - Several dealers were caught out when rolling over short yen positions in GBP/JPY carry trades over the New Year period as the yen surged against the pound, traders told FX Week.
BGC loses FX chief but gains e-commerce head
LONDON - Interdealer broker BGC Partners has lost its London-based managing director of foreign exchange, but has strengthened its e-commerce capabilities with a key hire in the City.
Lehman gains from CBA split
SYDNEY - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia's (CBA) decision to split its global markets and treasury business is playing into the hands of local competitors Lehman Brothers and the National Australia Bank.
Lehman sees forex up but fixed income down in Q4
NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers has achieved strong foreign exchange revenues for the fourth quarter, despite suffering big losses in fixed income.
Subprime crisis drains FX bonus pool
LONDON - Staff at banks worst hit by the subprime crisis are due to face reductions in cash payouts, sources tell FX Week .
Banks brace for algo trading boom in 2008
As the industry continues to digest the credit market's meltdown, foreign exchange trading volumes continue to boom. Representatives of the major FX banks, Credit Suisse, HSBC and Saxo Bank, discuss the main technology trends in e-FX trading to watch in…
Short-dated RMB forwards curve widens
HONG KONG - Short-term renminbi non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) will remain priced higher than onshore forwards into year end, as a US dollar liquidity squeeze causes onshore market participants to hold onto the greenback, say analysts.
Saxo in executive shake-up
COPENHAGEN - Christian Frahm, senior executive director and head of Europe, excluding UK and the Middle East, at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen, left the bank last month.
CIB boosts voice-trading tech
SHANGHAI - China Industrial Bank (CIB) has enhanced its voice-trading operations, adopting Orange Business Services Trading Solutions' dealing telephony.
Hotspot FXi revamp means faster trades
JERSEY CITY, NJ - Electronic communications network (ECN) Hotspot FXi plans to implement a multiple-server matching engine architecture to replace its single matching engine in January 2008, to improve the platform's performance.
Credit Suisse e-trades exotics
LONDON - Credit Suisse has enabled trading in structured exotic foreign exchange options on its proprietary electronic trading platform, Merlin, with select institutional clients globally, the Swiss dealer said last week.
Wayward US forex brokers struck off the register
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has revoked the introducing broker registrations of Next Financial Services Unlimited and New World Trading, due to fraudulent FX activities.
Overlay launches EM currency fund
DUBLIN - Overlay Asset Management has launched a specialist fund to invest exclusively in emerging market currencies.
Forex cons caught red-handed
DETROIT - The Michigan Federal Court has ordered Millenium Trading Group and Worldwide Clearing of Florida, as well as Florida resident Cedric Stanton, to pay more than $10 million in sanctions.
Icap and CME post strong FX gains
CHICAGO & LONDON - Interdealer broker Icap and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) continue to report strong month-on-month gains in foreign exchange trading volume.
Icap strengthens grasp on emerging markets
LONDON - Interdealer broker Icap has expanded in emerging markets, signing Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich (RZB) onto EBS Prime, its professional foreign exchange prime-brokerage solution.
Lehman joins retail FX rush
NEW YORK - Lehman Brothers is entering the burgeoning retail foreign exchange market with the acquisition of a 9.9% share in online retail trading company FXCM, ending months of speculation regarding the deal.
Plain vanilla no longer flavour of the month
LONDON & NEW YORK - Foreign exchange staff working in plain vanilla trading and sales will need to look out for their jobs in 2008, as banks reduce hires, recruitment consultants tell FX Week .
StanChart names flow head
SINGAPORE - Standard Chartered has named its new global head of flow foreign exchange options trading, a year after Richard Leighton was promoted to London-based global head of FX from a role as global head of FX options.
Automated trading to make up 90% of futures by 2010
NEW YORK - Pit trading is fading fast. An estimated 50% of all futures markets transactions in 2007 occurred through automated trading strategies - including market-making and quantitative black-box trading activities - and this proportion will rise to…
Commerzbank loses sales chief
LONDON - Commerzbank has seen the departure of Hugues de la Marnierre, London-based global head of sales, amid a restructure at the bank.
Fincad launches in the UK
DUBLIN - Financial analytics software and service provider Fincad has expanded its international operations by establishing an EMEA headquarters in Dublin.