Credit Derivatives House Of The Year

Barclays Capital A host of Barclays Capital's credit structures were recognized this year by peers and investors, including a novel Indian-only synthetic collateralized debt obligation and the firm's first constant proportion debt obligation referencing a bespoke portfolio. Barclays was singled out for excelling at ideas, distribution, infrastructure and people--a combination rarely found all in one shop. Investors also cited the firm's quantitative research, static deals, and credit range-accruals. Again this year, investors lauded London-based structuring head Heikki Monkkonen's ingenuity.

 

Calyon The French bank debuted its R-Evolution portfolio insurance structure, which has been replicated and marketed by competitors. Under Loic Fery, global head of credit markets and CDOs, and Ally Chow, head of product management and execution, the firm issued a tranche-based strategy called Solys notes--named for short-long-short. First issued in March, the strategy consists of buying protection on two tranches and selling protection on one tranche of a bespoke portfolio. Investors called the structure challenging in addition to innovative.

 

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank's Nitin Prabhu, head of commodity sales and structuring for Europe, gets the nod from investors for his part in creating a synthetic collateralized debt obligation with alternative asset allocation and for marketing the firm's DWS Commodity Alternative Asset Allocation Plus fund. Gregg Lippman, global head of asset-backed securities trading, and his desk were also cited for helping to promote the integrity of the market by maintaining so-called Chinese walls between derivatives desks and services. Deals of note include Primoris, a novel long/short CDO with State Street Global Advisors and its MaCROS constant proportion debt obligation with Natixis Asset Management. Finally, Deutsche Bank is given credit as the first house to recommend shorting the ABX.

 

JPMorgan

Investors describe JPMorgan's structured credit business, run globally by Brian Zeitlin, as timely and organized when it comes to designing products, such as one of this year's first managed constant proportion debt obligations, launched in partnership with Cairn Capital. The firm was also one of the first to offer a collateralized foreign exchange obligation, and was praised for its total-return synthetic portfolio insurance structures. One investor said he was impressed with JPMorgan's willingness to add bells and whistles to deals, while another said the firm's sizable swaptions trading team puts it in the lead in that arena.

 

Lehman Brothers Lisa Watkinson, global head of structured credit business development, is credited with putting Lehman at the forefront of synthetic loan structures and trading. The firm was a driving force behind LCDX, the loan credit-default swap index which launched this year. Lehman also played a major role advising and raising capital for Invicta Credit, a credit derivative product company launched at the start of the year. Investors noted the firm's credit strategy, under the direction of global head Ashish Shah, and also said its strong quantitative team is one of the best on the Street.