QUOTES OF THE YEAR 2004

"I don't actually exist."--David Bullen, foreign exchange options trader at National Australia Bank,outlining his unusual response to being suspended while the NAB investigates rogue trading losses (DW, 1/26).

 

"The NAIC white paper is as great a threat to the derivatives community as anything in my career."--Philip McBride Johnson, head of the exchange-traded derivatives practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flomin Washington, commenting on the insurance commissioners' paper that classified weather derivatives as insurance contracts (DW, 3/29).  

"When you stand up for your industry, you are defending America."--Phil Gramm, vice chairman of UBS Investment Bank, getting carried away at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association's annual general meeting in Chicago (DW, 4/5).

 

"My expectation is that by 2010 three quarters of all securitized products in Europe will be done by three strong, competitive houses."--Johan Groothaert, global head of structured and investment products at Deutsche Bankin London, predicting the future of the European market after the prospectus directive comes into force (DW, 5/24).  

"This could be very painful for many corporates."--Stephen Robbins, an accounting and tax specialist in the global risk solutions group at BNP Paribasin London, commenting on the impact of new tax treatment if the U.K. government does not amend its finance act (DW, 6/21).

"If God tells you the stock market will go up every day then options are worthless."--Stan Jonas, managing director in the derivatives products group at broker Fimat USA in New York, drawing an analogy with the Federal Reserve's influence over the interest rate market (DW, 7/5).

 

"This could be the Holy Grail for banks--they would love to securitize their SME loans."--Ben McCarthy, senior director and head of Asia-Pacific structured finance at Fitch Ratingsin Hong Kong, commenting on the budding collateralized debt obligation of small and medium-sized loans (DW, 7/12).

 

"These products have been around now and the sky hasn't fallen so people are accepting them more and more."--Craig Swanger, head of structured products and alternative investments at Macquarie Bankin Sydney, explaining why it plans to launch another collateralized debt obligation for retail investors (DW, 9/6).

 

"What matters is not what the law says, but what the policeman does."--Simon Gleeson, partner at Allen & Overyin London, philosophizing on the impact of regulations and guidance papers (DW, 10/4).  

"We have to consider that the CDO system was created to either dump assets from Barclays balance sheet into its customers portfolios or to make huge profits at the expense of its investors."--An HSH Nordbank internal document laying out the bank's allegations against Barclays Bank(DW, 11/25).

 

"The people who have been hurt are the people we persuaded about a year ago... If it continues like the last six months, we're in trouble."--Brian Strange, portfolio manager in the currency management group at JPMorgan Fleming Asset Managementin London, commenting on pension fund losses in the foreign exchange market (DW, 11/1).

 

"We don't want to bore [investors] to death with the 23rd index tracker."--Thorsten Wegener, head of sales in equity markets at WestLBin London, explaining its plans to build a U.K. structured products business (DW, 12/13).