Trading
EBS acquisition drives Icap results
LONDON – Interdealer broker Icap’s profits for the year ending March 31 rose 11%, largely on the back of last year’s acquisition of electronic broker EBS.
GCC currency uncertain after Kuwait abandons dollar peg
SAFAT, KUWAIT – The decision to abandon the Kuwaiti dinar’s peg to the US dollar in favour of a basket of major currencies has brought into question plans to introduce a single currency for the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.
UniCredit strengthens forex in London and New York
LONDON & NEW YORK – UniCredit has strengthened its selling power by making additional FX sales hires in two areas.
FXCM: tough questions for Deutsche
The fact that four banks have shown interest in acquiring a 35% stake in online currency trading platform FXCM has led many to question what this means for Deutsche Bank, which is understood not to be bidding for FXCM despite the white-label deal for…
EBS puts key stations in front of buy side
LONDON – Interdealer broker Icap is to begin piloting an extension to EBS Prime, to enable manual keyboard access to the EBS platform for the buy side in coming weeks.
Progress offers algo platform as a customised
BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS – Progress Software Corporation has packaged its Apama algorithmic trading platform for sell-side banks to offer as a complete web-based service to buy-side clients.
NFA suspends two FX FCM principals
The National Futures Association (NFA) has suspended the membership of two FX futures commission merchant (FCM) principals.
Forex traders face greater pressure from e-trading
LONDON – The surge in electronic trading and advances in derivatives structuring is putting greater demands on FX traders, say market participants.
BNP hires in structuring
LONDON – BNP Paribas has created four fixed-income structurer roles in London as part of a drive to build this area of the bank's business.
Bank of America views weak dollar
An eye on a highly pressured greenback helped Bank of America (BoA) reach the top of the three-month currency forecast rankings this week.
Hear no evil?
Retail punters and cross-border institutional investors have adopted strong risk-seeking positions despite warnings of a Chinese stock market bubble, find Andrew Capon, editor-in-chief, and Michael Metcalfe, head of macro strategy at State Street Global…
Fenics FX adds emerging markets and exotics support
NEW YORK – Interdealer broker GFI is releasing version 10.5 of its options pricing software Fenics FX with added support for emerging markets and exotic options.
Retail investors drive strong FX trading volumes
GREENWICH, CT – Retail FX trading volumes accounted for around $11 trillion of the $70.6 trillion global FX market in 2006, according to research released last week.
JP Morgan to offer structured deposit system
SINGAPORE – JP Morgan plans to go live with a structured deposit pricing and processing system by mid-June, to automate the roll-out of dual currency investment products.
Caplin Systems unveils web trading tool
LONDON – Market data systems vendor Caplin Systems is today (May 21) launching Caplin Trader, an out-of-the box web trading application that enables banks to build multi-product trading portals in FX and fixed income, officials at the company told FX…
Automation hot for Russia
MOSCOW – Automation was the central theme at the third annual international foreign exchange seminar in Moscow last Tuesday (May 15).
Lehman hires in London and Hong Kong, loses in NY
HONG KONG, NEW YORK & LONDON – Lehman Brothers is building up in structuring and sales with hires in Hong Kong and London.
StanChart hires global head
SINGAPORE – Standard Chartered has hired Leonard Feder to run its global financial markets unit.
China widens trading band
BEIJING – China widened the USD/CNY trading band to 0.5% from 0.3% effective today (May 21), signalling a more aggressive move towards CNY appreciation, said analysts.
To net or not to net? That's CLS's question
He who shouts loudest will be heard? If the old adage is true, then settlement platform CLS should be moving into netting.
BoE rate hike should have been higher
Commenting on last week's widely anticipated 0.25% rise in UK base rates, London-based fund manager Ted Scott of F&C Investments believes the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee should have done more to stamp out inflationary expectations
Barclays launches FX-linked ETNs
NEW YORK – Barclays Bank launched three exchange traded notes (ETN) linked to the movement of the euro, sterling and yen relative to the dollar on the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday (May 9).
Saxo continues Asia expansion in Singapore
SINGAPORE – Saxo Capital Markets, the Asian subsidiary of Saxo Bank, is continuing to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, with two key appointments in Singapore.