Trading
Swissie set to replace greenback in Russia
Igor Suzdaltsev, head of financial institutions at OTP Bank (Russia) in Moscow, explains why he believes Russia will switch affections from the US dollar to the Swiss franc
Interbank lending eases further
LONDON - The Ted spread, along with overnight and three-month Libor, fell for the fourth day in succession after European governments announced bail-out packages on Monday (October 13), and the US followed suit on Tuesday.
Ex-Lehman UK staff find new FX roles
LONDON - Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Standard Chartered and JP Morgan have all moved to make further hires from Lehman Brothers' former foreign exchange team.
Credit Suisse launches currency basket options
LONDON - Credit Suisse has introduced currency basket options on Merlin, its proprietary electronic foreign exchange structured products trading platform, in response to client demand.
Central bank turns broker
ISTANBUL - The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has stepped in to broker interbank foreign exchange trades, in a bid to quell fears over counterparty risk in the local FX market.
Mixed forecast for FX
LONDON - Foreign exchange teams will avoid the worst of the job cuts in the City of London, although market sources warn no-one will be immune from redundancies.
Hotspot FX hires Asia sales head
SINGAPORE - Hotspot FX has appointed Trent Beacroft as head of Asia sales in Singapore.
BNP and Deutsche give homes to Lehman staff
LONDON - Not all Lehman Brothers' refugees have ended up at Nomura - BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank have also stepped in to make hires.
Opportunity no longer knocks
The past week has highlighted what a questionable time it is for the industry
FX traders exercise caution
GLOBAL - Traders worldwide continue to avoid dealing with each other, despite co-ordinated efforts by global central banks to ease the turmoil in the financial market through rate cuts and fund injections.
A delicate phase for the euro
Audrey Childe-Freeman, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, evaluates the prospects for the euro
Japan traders dump short yen positions
TOKYO - Japanese retail foreign exchange margin traders abandoned $16 billion worth of short yen positions within days last week, in a scramble to limit losses from unwinding carry trades.
Colombia fruitful for Citi settlement
BOGOTA & NEW YORK - Citi's Colombia-based domestic settlement service began settling more than $1.3 billion in FX trades daily in September, representing in excess of 80% of the Colombian wholesale FX market.
Strike while the iron is hot
Pete Luxton, economic adviser, and Shant Movsesian, manager, foreign exchange options, at Informa Global Markets in London suggest a basket strategy to play euro weakness
Asia's tigers show their stripes
For Nick Chamie, head of emerging markets research at RBC Dominion Securities in Toronto, memories of Asia's 1997 meltdown are resurfacing as concern grows in the region
JSE trades first $20m options contract
JOHANNESBURG - The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has traded its first currency options contract with a notional value of $20 million.
JDFX gets smart with Kontrol
ZURICH - Foreign exchange trading company JDFX has capitalised on an increasing focus on risk management within financial markets by launching Kontrol, a system built to eliminate inefficiencies and dangers caused by calculating risk several times a day…
Króna in chaos during Iceland's meltdown
REYKJAVIK - Confusion reigned in Icelandic króna trading last week, as the country's central bank, Sedlabanki, abandoned its peg to a basket of nine currencies a day after it was effected.
Baxter enters algo execution
NEW YORK - Baxter Financial Services will add algorithmic execution features over its electronic communications network (ECN) Baxter FX by the end of the year.
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.
RealStream Margin revamped
LONDON - Cognotec is set to roll out the latest version of its web-based margin trading system, RealStream Margin 3.0, in response to market demand for efficiency and enhanced risk management products.
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.
Saxo Bank aces as US dollar rallies
Saxo Bank topped this week's three-month currency forecast rankings with expectations the dollar would stage a comeback based on improved US balance of trade.