Trading
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.
Credit Suisse names global head of forex
NEW YORK - Credit Suisse has made Steve Yanez head of its global foreign exchange business in New York as of May 1.
Risks for Anglo-Saxon currencies
Mike Gallagher , director of research at IDEAglobal in London, evaluates the prospects for currency markets during a break in the intensity of negative credit or economic news
Bawag Bank licenses GFI's Fenics FX
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic's Bawag Bank has taken a three-year licence for pricing and risk management software Fenics FX, to price foreign exchange.
GCC currency pairs live on ACM
GENEVA - Six new Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) currency pairs are now available to traders on Geneva-based online currency trading platform AC Markets (ACM).
Exchange-traded forex volumes up 41% in April
CHICAGO & NEW YORK - CME Group foreign exchange volume averaged 613,000 contracts a day for the month of April, up 41% on the same month last year. Average daily volumes for FX contracts in the three-month period ending April were also the highest…
Short volatility strategies best earners in April
LONDON - A short volatility strategy would have gained currency managers the highest returns in April, according to strategy research carried out by ABN Amro.
Scotia profits from eurozone's escape
Scotia Capital topped this week's three-month forecast rankings with a bullish euro forecast as the eurozone, and the European Central Bank (ECB), held firm in the face of the US downturn.
New governor overhauls South Korea's FSS
SEOUL - Kim Jong Chang, the new governor of South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), has initiated a shake-up of the financial regulator aimed at cutting bureaucracy, streamlining operations and attracting talent from the private sector.
Credit Suisse and Currenex switch on to Fidessa
LONDON - Buy-side technology provider Fidessa LatentZero is set to add interfaces to Credit Suisse, Currenex and Dublin-based foreign exchange broker Baxter-FX to its Minerva OEMS (order and execution management system) by the third quarter.
RBI releases details of rupee futures plans
MUMBAI - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended a single dollar-rupee contract of $1,000 for the introduction of exchange-traded futures into the country.
HSBC expands single-bank platform's reach
LONDON - HSBC is expanding its foreign exchange presence in southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East by rolling out its single-bank platform HSBCnet FX and MM Trading locally.
Systematic managers profit from volatile March
STAMFORD, CT - Rules-based currency managers outperformed their discretionary peers in March, amid volatility at levels not seen since the bailout of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in 1998.
BarCap offers retail white-label service
LONDON - Barclays Capital is breaking into the mass and private wealth management markets for foreign exchange with the launch of a white-label margin FX trading service called Barx White Label for Private Investors.
Tide of writedowns rolls on for banks
NEW YORK, LONDON & ZURICH - Foreign exchange results continue to provide much-needed good news for investment banks, as major players announced a fresh wave of billion-dollar credit-related writedowns last week.
Icap and Korea Money Broker form alliance
LONDON & SEOUL - Icap and Korea Money Brokerage Corp, announced on April 24 that they have formed a strategic alliance to further develop electronic spot foreign exchange trading in Korea.
RBC predicts change in USD's fortune
RBC Capital Markets tops this week's one-month forecast rankings by calling for a re-emergence of dollar support by investors, based on historical performance.
ABN trio joins the PrivateBank-Chicago
CHICAGO - Three former ABN Amro/LaSalle senior forex managers have resurfaced at the PrivateBank-Chicago (PBC), a unit of PrivateBancorp, to head the company's newly established capital markets business.
CFTC slams Alaron Trading
CHICAGO - Chicago-based futures trading company Alaron Trading is due to pay $299,000 in penalties by today (April 28) for failing to supervise employees.
G-3 corporates increase their currency hedging
NEW YORK, LONDON & TOKYO - The average year-end global hedging ratio has risen 13% since December, according to the results of a G-3 corporate hedging survey by JP Morgan.
RBS readies post-merger Asia forex trading team
HONG KONG & SINGAPORE - The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is considering relocating its G-11 currencies trading hub from Hong Kong to Singapore, according to sources, although its plans are not yet finalised.
Land of opportunity
The re-emergence of large numbers of stocks trading at a discount to their net current assets (net/nets) attests to the remarkable values now available in Japan, says Peter Tasker, part of Dresdner Kleinwort's Japan research team in Tokyo.
Deadline for e-FX Awards imminent
The closing date for FX Week 's 5th annual e-FX Awards is fast approaching. To be in the running for one of these awards we must receive your entry by the close of play on May 2, 2008.
Hotspot FXi launches data service
JERSEY CITY, NJ & LONDON - Hotspot FXi is the latest platform to take advantage of the demand for foreign exchange market data from model-based and algorithmic trading shops, selling market data from its historical archive.