Asia - Derivatives

MUFG is overhauling personnel and its business model to try to escape a cycle of low returns, writes David Rothnie.

FTSE Russell and Singapore Exchange (SGX) have teamed up to offer investors a range of products across asset classes. It follows the termination of an agreement between SGX and MSCI.

UBS reckons it has a hit upon a ‘unique formula’ for growth as it expands its investment banking offering to its high net worth clients, writes David Rothnie.

Singapore Exchange (SGX) revealed a new suite of Asian equity derivatives this week, as it gave investors a look at what its strategy after winding down its high profile licensing agreement with MSCI will be.

John Hempton, the Australian short seller and self-styled eccentric, believes fraudulent companies will soon become evident in the corporate rubble left by the coronavirus pandemic. Hempton, who has bet against 1,100 companies over the course of his career, explained how his hedge fund Bronte Capital goes about finding rotten eggs in business and finance.

Muddy Waters has fostered a fearsome reputation as a credible, thorough and forceful short seller whose explosive reports are a danger to anyone harbouring a stake in its intended target. Carson Block, its founder and chief investment officer, told GlobalCapital he has never been wrong about a company he’s shorted, though that doesn’t mean he’s made money from every position he has held. According to Block, monetary policies intended to stimulate markets through financial crises actually corrode them, and stifle accountability for serious failures in corporate governance.

A group of 23 banks and 12 securities houses completed 154 renminbi interest rate option (IRO) transactions worth Rmb12.8bn ($1.81bn) on Monday. The new derivatives product is viewed as a solid step for China’s interest rate reform.

Alain Gallois will become Natixis’s global head of investment banking, replacing Mohamed Kallala. The latter is heading over to run global markets, with that role’s incumbent, Luc François, leaving the bank.

HSBC’s new strategic plan involves numerous changes to its investment banking division, including shifting resources to Asia and the Middle East, reducing the scale of many operations in the European markets business, and combining product functions with commercial banking.