Trading
FSS suspends State St FX in South Korea
SEOUL - South Korea's financial regulator has suspended the FX business of State Street's Seoul branch for a month, following the discovery of violations to FX regulations.
US lets China off the hook
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Treasury has cleared China of manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantages against the US.
TD in Asia hub shake-up
SINGAPORE, SYDNEY & TORONTO - Toronto Dominion Securities has relocated its Asia foreign exchange and rates trading hub from Sydney to Singapore, in a move to boost its coverage of the emerging markets.
Banks at odds over FX flows outlook
LONDON & PARIS - Major banks are at odds as to whether high foreign exchange volumes seen during the first quarter will continue into the rest of 2008.
Asia and the US-led slowdown
Jane Foley, senior foreign exchange strategist and portfolio manager at Redtower Asset Management in London, looks at the implications of a US slowdown on the Asian markets
More work needed on settlement risk
BASEL - Central banks are calling for more action to eliminate foreign exchange settlement risk, despite significant progress over recent years.
StanChart moves Africa FX team to Dubai hub
LONDON & DUBAI - Standard Chartered is moving its offshore African foreign exchange trading desk from London to Dubai, as it continues to build operations in the Middle East.
Bear Stearns gets the axe
LONDON AND NEW YORK - JP Morgan has taken a hatchet to Bear Stearns' foreign exchange business in London and New York, with 62 of 73 positions set to be put on notice, according to a senior Bear Stearns official.
UBS removes US mortgages from VaR
ZURICH - UBS has announced a change to its risk measurement techniques: exposures to US mortgages are no longer included in its daily calculations of value at risk (VaR).
BOC acts to curb RMB speculative buying
HONG KONG - Bank of China, the only clearing bank for Chinese renminbi foreign exchange transactions in Hong Kong, raised the cost of converting the Hong Kong dollar to renminbi last Wednesday (May 7).
The new wave
Paul Caplin, chief executive at Caplin Systems in London, discusses the application of Web 2.0 for foreign exchange trading
FXCM posts $62m
FXCM posted $62.12 million in revenues and a net quarterly EBITA of $25 million in first-quarter results ending March 31.
Quick rolls out new Icap data
TOKYO - Japanese financial information vendor Quick, the country's dominant domestic provider, is adding a suite of new currency datasets and services from interdealer broker Icap to its products.
Euro threat remains, says UK's House of Lords
LONDON - The euro has managed to avoid an initial quick collapse predicted by many, but the threat has not yet passed, according to the UK's House of Lords.
CNY: No clear reason for NDF retreat
SINGAPORE - Mispricing seen in the Chinese renminbi non-deliverable forwards (NDF) market in recent weeks will be short-lived, say analysts.
FX has record Q1 at writedown-hit UBS
ZURICH & LONDON - High volatility drove a record quarter for UBS's foreign exchange business, but could only partially offset the effects of $19 billion-worth of US mortgage- and structured credit-related losses in its fixed-income, currencies and…
SEC cracks down on Ponzi scheme
WASHINGTON, DC - The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on an alleged $27.9 million Ponzi scheme involving foreign exchange trading firm Gold-Quest International (GQI).
Citi holds firm with negative US outlook
NEW YORK - Expectations for further weakness in the US economy has seen this week's top-ranked three-month forecaster, Citi, take a cautious approach to the recent dollar revival.
CBA reshuffles forex
SYDNEY - The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has made two key hires for its foreign exchange trading team in Sydney and has restructured its global sales group.
Czech forex volumes double in six months
PRAGUE - The credit crisis led to a sharp rise in Czech koruna forwards and foreign exchange swaps volumes in April, according to statistics released last week.
Saxo in $18.8m acquisition
SYDNEY - Saxo Bank is expanding its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, with plans to acquire a 35% stake in Sydney-based broker Tricom.
Efficient correlation
Marc Chandler, chief currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in New York, shows how a study of correlations can reveal valuable information about the shifting relationship between global currencies
UniCredit hires Craven to drive Asia expansion
HONG KONG - UniCredit has hired Joe Craven to head the bank's fixed-income, currencies and commodities (FICC) sales and trading business in Asia.