Complete news archive

  • Peripheral CDS pushed to new highs

    CDS levels on 5 May reflected the widespread unease surrounding the Greek bailout. Greek five-year CDS closed the day at an all-time high of 830bp, with Spanish and Portuguese spreads also moving out to new highs of 227bp and 377bp respectively. At the same time, the iTraxx Main widened to 106bp - a level last seen in the summer of .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Asset manager names new recruits

    Matrix Group's asset management business has hired Chris Beament as business development manager and Chris Elliott as marketing executive. Beament joins from Legal & General Investment Management, where he distributed its unit trust range, and Elliott joins from Goldman Sachs in Auckland, where he was a private wealth analyst.

    Beament will report to Matrix director Luke Reeves, head of retail .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Another BarCap credit strategist moves on

    Ashish Shah has left Barclays Capital just days after replacing Robert McAdie, who resigned as European head of credit strategy (see last issue). Credit strategist Shah will join AllianceBernstein as co-head of global credit investment, where he is expected to run the credit team with JJ McKoan in New York and report to head of fixed income Doug Peebles.

    BarCap .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Data service adds MBS analyst

    BlackBox Logic has hired Cory Lambert as senior MBS analyst. The data aggregation company says he will be responsible for building collateral analytics using the company's BBx Data service and integrating the data with complementary data sets. Lambert will also oversee the integration of BBx Data with web-based delivery platforms such as the Crystal Logic interface and 1010data.

    He spent .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Euro CLO manager resigns

    Natixis, the European collateral manager on Marquette US/European CLO, has tendered its resignation. Neuberger Berman Fixed Income is currently lead collateral manager on the transaction and is set to take on European collateral management duties for the deal, subject to noteholder approval.

    Neuberger Berman Fixed Income was formerly known as Lehman Brothers Asset Management. The firm acquired Lightpoint Capital Management .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Positive convexity trades to hedge contagion risk

    Sovereign fundamentals point to a prolonged high-volatility environment rather than a quick resolution. Structured credit analysts at Goldman Sachs have consequently put forward two trades to hedge contagion risk - shorting the iTraxx Main seven-year S9 22%-100% versus the index (with a 2:1 ratio) and buying protection on iTraxx Main seven-year S9 12%-22% versus the index (at a 1:1 ratio).

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • New head of credit strategy hired

    Alan Capper has been appointed md and head of credit strategy at Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets. It is a newly-created position responsible for the provision of macro credit strategy research and Capper will report to head of credit trading Paul Lewitt.

    Capper has over twenty years of experience in financial markets, having previously led BNP Paribas' quantitative credit research and .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Credit structurer appointed

    RBS has appointed Gary Davis as md in its credit and rates structuring team within its global banking and markets division. The bank says he will focus on delivering credit solutions for North American clients and be based in Stamford, Connecticut. Davis will report to Miles Hunt and David Wagner, respective Americas heads of global structuring and rates structuring.

    Davis .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • DTCC moves to provide greater transparency

    The DTCC has expanded its public release of data in the Trade Information Warehouse's global repository to include a breakout of outstanding CDS contract values in their currencies of denomination. The move is expected to bring greater transparency to the risk exposure of a particular currency to the CDS market.

    "Because nearly all credit derivatives transactions are maintained centrally in .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Mortgage REIT adds structurer

    Robert Restrick has joined CreXus Investment Corp. He will be responsible for the structuring and placing of the REIT's investment activities in the CRE space.

    The existing team at CreXus is predominantly credit-focused and so Restrick's structuring experience is anticipated to be a good fit. He was previously senior md at CWCapital Investments and before that at GMAC.

    .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Succession events determined

    A couple of succession events have been determined by ISDA's American Determinations Committee. First is in connection with Northwest Airlines, with Delta Air Lines named as the sole successor as of 31 December. Second is with respect to Affiliated Computer Services, where Boulder Acquisition Corp has been named as sole successor as of 5 February.

    .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Asia Pacific hires continue apace

    Babson Capital Management has hired Sue-Ellen O'Keeffe in a sales and investor relations role, as the firm becomes more active in the Asia Pacific. She joins the firm's global business development group and is responsible for servicing and maintaining existing client relationships, in addition to business development within Australia and New Zealand. She will be based in Melbourne and report .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • CCP, trade repository recommendations issued

    The Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS) and the Technical Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have issued two consultative reports containing proposals aimed at strengthening the OTC derivatives market.

    "These two complementary sets of high-level guidance constitute an important response of the CPSS and IOSCO to the recent financial crisis. They also reflect the G20's .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • CDS notionals down 9%

    The total notional amount of outstanding OTC derivatives increased by 2% in H209 to US$615trn, according to the latest statistics from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). This increase follows a recovery of 10% in H109. The H2 increase was evenly spread among risk categories, with the exception of commodities and CDS, which fell by 21% and 9% respectively.

    Gross .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Credit trader finds new home

    Iftikhar Ali has joined Millennium Capital Partners in London. Millennium Management confirms that he started work last week. In his new role he will trade European and Asian credit.

    Ali left James Caird in April after just nine months as head of its European credit business. He has previously held posts as head of credit arbitrage trading for Europe and .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Bank bolsters US credit trading desk

    BNP Paribas has made further credit trading appointments at its New York office. Matt Reid is joining from UBS's Stamford office as an index trader, while Pinak Modi and Sahir Islam both join from Barclays Capital. Modi will trade index tranches and options, while Islam will trade high yield bonds and CDS.

    .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Survey finds US CRE outlook improving

    Results from a DLA Piper survey suggest that the US CRE industry remains largely bearish, although the outlook is improving as bullish sentiment gains momentum. Billions of dollars in CRE debt is set to come due, but the law firm says market sentiment indicates that the bottom of the cycle has been reached.

    The survey found that 60% of respondents .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Bank beefs up in Euro credit sales

    Morgan Stanley has made a string of hires for its European credit sales and trading business. The bank has made ten appointments in the past two months as it looks to strengthen its credit department.

    Remy Kesrouani and Matthias Beck both join from JPMorgan. Kesrouani is an investment grade corporates trader, while structured credit trader Beck will join in June. .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • CPDO coding error resurfaces

    Moody's disclosed in its latest quarterly 10-Q filing that on 18 March it received a Wells Notice from the US SEC stating that the Commission is considering instituting administrative and cease-and-desist proceedings against it in connection with the rating agency's initial June 2007 application on SEC Form NRSRO to register as a nationally recognised statistical rating organisation under the Credit .......

    Job Swaps 12 May 2010

  • Financial liability accounting changes proposed

    Following the completion of work on the classification and measurement of financial assets, the IASB has published its proposed changes to the accounting for financial liabilities. The IASB proposes limited changes to the accounting for liabilities, with amendments to the fair value option.

    David Tweedie, IASB chair, says: "Whilst there are theoretical arguments for treating financial assets and liabilities in .......

    News Round-up 12 May 2010

  • Cash CLO pricing model proposed

    Ex-Lehman Brothers analysts Yadong Li and Ziyu Zheng have published a paper proposing a top-down pricing model for cash CLO tranches based on research they undertook between May and September 2008 while both were employed at the bank. The pair say that the risk-neutral model has the potential to facilitate transparency in the cash CLO markets and could also greatly .......

    News 12 May 2010
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