KGI Securities Co., part of the KGI Group, which has USD6.5 billion in assets, is considering purchasing credit derivatives for the first time in Taiwan's newly-opened onshore credit market. "We're just starting to look at this," said Jeffery Huang, head of interest rate derivatives in Taipei.
Huang said the firm is considering purchasing default-swap protection for its high-yield bond portfolio as well as investing in credit-linked deposits later this year. He declined to quantify potential investment sizes. The firm is speaking with potential counterparties for the transactions to gain a further understanding of the instruments. These include Deutsche Bank, which was the first to structure a Taiwan dollar-denominated credit derivative (DW, 1/27). Officials at Deutsche Bank declined comment.