Foreign exchange
RBS FiXes benchmarks with EBS
LONDON -- The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has gone live with a new benchmark engine for spot and forwards FX rates, called RBSFiX.
Emerging markets boost HSBC’s profits
LONDON -- A strong performance in emerging markets FX helped HSBC to its biggest-ever yearly forex profits, an official said last week. The bank made $1.17 billion from forex in 2002, up by 4% from $1.12 billion the year before. Based on banks’ financial…
Asian forex still untapped
SINAGPORE -- Five years on from the Asian financial crisis, FX trading opportunities in the region remain largely untapped, 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.
Local presence vital for LatAm FX success
BUENOS AIRES -- Banks in Europe may be centralising FX trading activity in one regional centre, but the opposite is required in Latin America, senior bankers told FX Week .
Lehman bags Merrill’s Bernal to lead money manager sales
NEW YORK -- FX heavyweight Mike Bernal joined Lehman Brothers in New York last Monday (February 26). He joins in a new position managing all marketing efforts for money managers in foreign exchange, said a spokesperson at Lehman Brothers in New York.
Economy buoys UK banks’ forex vols
LONDON -- UK banks have managed to avoid the widespread year-on-year downturns in foreign exchange revenues suffered by their US counterparts, financial reports revealed 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.
Traders reap rewards in LatAm markets
MEXICO CITY -- As clients and banks scour the globe for volatile FX markets, Latin America has become a key battleground for new FX business, senior market participants told FX Week .
ABN Amro overhauls FM division
AMSTERDAM -- ABN Amro last week completed a thorough overhaul of its financial markets division, in a reorgnisation that will affect foreign exchange in two key ways.
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.
China forex volumes rise
BEIJING -- Forex turnover in the Chinese market rocketed by 73% in January, according to data made public last week.
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.
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.
ABN reports FX uptick
LONDON -- Dutch bank ABN Amro reported a 40% rise in FX dealing income for 2002 in a report released last week.
Goldman to add FX to research portal
LONDON -- Investment bank Goldman Sachs will add FX to a new centralised data and research platform in March.
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.
Private client demand soars for FX firm
LONDON -- More private clients in the UK buying property in Europe has boosted demand for a new specialist FX firm, a senior official at Seagray Matthews Foreign Exchange (SGM-FX) told FX Week .
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.
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.
Barclays merges FX/FI prime brokerage
LONDON -- Barclays Capital will complete the merger of its FX and fixed-income prime brokerage businesses by the end of March, a senior official told FX Week .
Amex Bank’s FX revenues rising
BOSTON -- American Express Bank last week announced an uptick in its FX revenues for 2002. Amex reported foreign exchange income and other, undefined, trading revenues for full-year 2002 of $170 million, up 18% from $144 million in 2001.
Shift in risk sentiment shores up Australian options market
SYDNEY -- A change in risk sentiment, coupled with major underlying spot moves in local currencies, is bringing extra FX options business to Australia, according to local dealers.
Egypt floats pound
CAIRO -- The Egyptian pound remained stable last week at 5.41 per dollar after it was freely floated for the first time last Wednesday (January 29).