Trading
Banks vow to improve transparency
WASHINGTON, DC & FRANKFURT - The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a banking industry trade group, has promised to improve transparency over risk exposure and executive pay in the wake of the credit crisis.
Fair-value strategies pay off in March
LONDON - Currency managers running value strategies were likely to have the best returns in March, according to strategy research by ABN Amro.
SuperD offers exit pricing
LONDON - Market turmoil and increased regulation has prompted data and software vendor SuperDerivatives to add liquidation, or exit, pricing to its portfolio revaluation services.
Merrill's fundamental edge tops rankings
Fundamentally driven expectations of euro outperformance from Merrill Lynch edged out CIBC World Markets' technical view to take first place in the one-month rankings this week.
How misaligned is USD?
Pete Luxton, global economic adviser at Informa Global Markets in London, assesses USD's deviation from purchasing power parity and how it affects the G-10 currencies
BarCap aims to capture FX volatility
LONDON - Barclays Capital has launched three foreign exchange volatility indexes, the BetaVol, Smart BetaVol and AlphaVol. The indexes, which are designed to provide portfolio diversification and event hedge protection against sudden market downturns,…
Streambase targets Tier II with forex aggregator
LEXINGTON, MA - Technology vendor Streambase is targeting Tier II banks seeking to enter the algorithmic trading arena with a new foreign exchange aggregation product.
Forex options trading surges during turbulent month
CHICAGO & NEW YORK - Foreign exchange options trading surged on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), setting multiple forex trading records during a volatile March.
CFTC wary of Fed's merger proposal
WASHINGTON, DC - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has urged US Treasury to proceed with caution over its recommendation to merge the US futures regulator and its securities market counterpart, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Watching the market in 3D
Chip Lowry, senior managing director of Currenex, and John Vause, managing director of State Street's Global Link business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, evaluate the evolution of the FX market's structure
Forex bonuses intact
LONDON - Foreign exchange and rates staff avoided the sharp falls in salary and bonus packages suffered by peers in debt and credit last year, according to research by London-based recruitment company Napier Scott released last week.
India's Centurion Bank signs up to SuperD
LONDON & MUMBAI - Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBP) has gone live with SuperDerivatives' SD-Banks multi-asset derivatives portfolio management system and the SD-IR interest rates pricing and analytics module.
Citi targets EM settlement
NEW YORK & BOGOTA - Citi's domestic settlement service is set to gain a foothold in emerging markets where CLS is currently not active.
Trading records fall during turbulent month
NEW YORK & LONDON - Records tumbled on foreign exchange trading platforms last month, with EBS and Currenex reporting record trading volumes for the month and FXall a record quarter.
India reacts to rise in FX derivatives losses
MUMBAI - Indian accounting regulators have brought forward the deadline for complaince with disclosure requirements related to foreign exchange derivatives, amid rising losses linked to complex hedges by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Yen rise triggers PRDC hedging
TOKYO - The sharp appreciation of the yen in March has left dealers jostling to hedge exposures to power-reverse dual currency notes (PRDCs) and other similar structured products.
Merk offers Asian currency fund
PALO ALTO, CA - Merk Investments launched the Merk Asian Currency Fund (MACF) on Tuesday (April 1), a mutual fund that invests in a basket of Asian currencies, aimed at retail investors.
Siena Gateway gets Fix adaptor
LONDON - Eurobase last week (April 4) launched a Fix adaptor for its e-trading connectivity product, Siena Gateway.
Asian SWFs increase global share
LONDON - Asian sovereign wealth funds (SWF) are growing at a faster rate than their Middle Eastern counterparts, due to larger balance of payment surpluses, according to a report by the private sector industry body International Financial Services London…
Caplin wins three new clients
LONDON - London-based web technology vendor Caplin Systems has gained three new clients for its multi-product web-based client connectivity platform, Caplin Trader, said an official at the company.
Icap grows in Middle East
BAHRAIN - Interdealer broker Icap is expanding its footprint in the Middle East by adding the Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) as an EBS Prime customer.
Small retail FX firms face extinction
Felix Shipkevich, general counsel, and Anna Vidiaev, staff attorney, at online foreign exchange trading company Capital Market Services in New York say a proposed rise in capital requirements for retail brokers will result in an anticompetitive market
EUR/USD breakout benefits TMS Brokers
TMS Brokers topped this week's one-month currency forecast rankings by predicting a sharp move higher in EUR/USD, after the currency pair ended three months of range trading in February.
Handelsbanken shuts down New York desk
NEW YORK - Handelsbanken Capital Markets is closing down its New York FX proprietary trading operation and concentrating this activity in Stockholm, where it is based, as part of a move to reduce earnings volatility.