Foreign exchange
Merrill reorg triggers forex hires
LONDON & NEW YORK – Merrill Lynch has made four hires in its FX options team, amid a reorganisation of its FX and local currency trading businesses.
Forex shuffle at London Citi
LONDON – Citi is undergoing changes at its FX team in London, with three departures and two hires.
Lehman Brothers expands e-FX capabilities
LONDON – Lehman Brothers is expanding its e-commerce capabilities, as part of the continued expansion of the bank's forex business.
Four ISE forex contracts go live
NEW YORK – Four FX options contracts began trading on the New York-based International Securities Exchange (ISE) last Tuesday (April 17).
Merrill reorg triggers forex hires
LONDON & NEW YORK – Merrill Lynch has made four hires in its FX options team, amid a reorganisation of its FX and local currency trading businesses.
Marex hooks up with Accelor
LONDON – Independent brokerage Marex Financial has established connectivity to Accelor, FXall's new electronic communications network, enabling clients to trade over the platform.
Icap challenges Reuters with i-Forwards platform
GLOBAL – Interdealer broker Icap is taking on rival electronic forward FX broker Reuters, with the global rollout of i-Forwards, its electronic trading platform.
Directional Trading opens to investors
LONDON – Proprietary trading company Directional Trading has opened three currency management programmes to investors, in the form of managed accounts.
China forex market advances with launch of RMB e-trading
SHANGHAI – The Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System (Cfets) last week launched electronic trading in RMB crosses, marking the next phase in the evolution of the country's foreign exchange market.
ABN Amro departures highlight staff jitters
HONG KONG – ABN Amro continues to suffer departures in FX sales and structuring in Hong Kong, as rival banks target talent at the regional operations of the Dutch bank.
BarCap loses two, gains one in London
LONDON – Barclays Capital has undergone changes to its foreign exchange team in London, with two departures and a hire.
Merrill Lynch reshuffles London forex sales structure
LONDON – Merrill Lynch has reorganised its London-based forex sales team, as it shifts away from a regional structure to a client-focused one.
E-trading lifts retail volumes
LONDON – Electronic trading platforms have spurred the growth of retail foreign exchange trading volumes in the global FX market, according to research released last week.
Forex tech spend set to rise 65% in 2010
BOSTON – Expenditure on technologies to support advanced trading strategies for FX trading in North America is expected to rise by around 65% over the next three years, as firms struggle to keep pace with the demands of low-latency trading, according to…
CFTC charges unregulated futures brokers
WASHINGTON DC – The US futures regulator is continuing to battle FX fraud in the country, with charges hitting unregulated FX futures brokers and online retail trading platforms.
The move to a multi-asset class approach
Last week in Chicago, we hosted our first event targeted at the buy-side, FX Invest . One of the recurring themes during the day was the shift to cross-asset trading and sales.
Specialist calls for a level forex playing field
CHICAGO – The foreign exchange industry should consider levelling the playing field to reflect the changing dynamics in the market, said Howard Tai, currency and equity derivatives specialist at American Century Investment.
SEB gets China RMB go-ahead
SHANGHAI – SEB Shanghai has received approval from the Chinese foreign exchange regulators to launch a renminbi forex forwards business in the country.
Banks gear up to pursue forex opportunities in India
MUMBAI – Banks are realigning and expanding FX desks in India, in response to the growing business opportunities in the country.
Saab chooses SuperD to enhance pension funds
STOCKHOLM – Swedish defence contractor Saab is using interest rate derivatives data from SuperDerivatives to enhance the performance of its employee pension funds.
Banks warn to stress test
CHICAGO – At last week's FX Invest congress in Chicago, Barclays Capital, Citi and Morgan Stanley warned of the pressures being placed on back-office systems by rising FX volumes.
Deutsche dealt blow in Asia
SINGAPORE – It is understood that Deutsche Bank has lost Jai Rajpal, its global head of Asian currency trading, to Lehman Brothers, in what is being viewed as a huge blow for the bank.
All eyes are on Chicago this week
FXMarketSpace has finally gone live, and apparently things aren't going too badly.
Steady growth on FXMarketSpace
LONDON, CHICAGO & NEW YORK – Reuters and Chicago Mercantile Exchange joint venture platform FXMarketSpace went live last week, with volumes understood to be growing gradually.