Derivs - Credit

Asif Mohamedali, the former head of European flow credit trading at Credit Suisse in London, has joined Prism Financial Products, a buyside brokerage.

Strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch are recommending investors sell credit default swaps on seven to 10 year French credits noting that the credit default swap/cash basis is especially positive.

Ukraine has a long history of weak credit quality. Indeed, one has to go all the way back to August 2011 to find 5-year CDS levels tighter than 500bps.

Hellebore Capital Management is launching a new credit derivatives index arbitrage fund, which aims to profit from the relative value between a credit derivatives index and all of its members.

Loan desks and CVA desks are buying out-of-the-money payers, and in some cases payer spreads, on the iTraxx Main across all expiries as spreads return to levels seen at the end of January, before emerging market sovereigns triggered increased volatility.

Stream Capital, the Geneva-based advisory and execution firm, has hired Fabrice Toledano, a former director in mutual fund and hedge fund structuring in London, as a director focusing on structured credit.

Brokers could be squeezed out of the marketplace as the sellside increasingly turns to electronic platforms to match trades. That’s the view of Niall Cameron, global head of credit trading at HSBC, speaking at the 9th Annual European Market Liquidity Conference hosted by the Association of Financial Markets in Europe in London on Tuesday.

Regulation has forced risk from the sellside to the buyside in financial markets, according to participants at the 9th Annual European Market Liquidity Conference hosted by the Association of Financial Markets in Europe in London on Tuesday.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has released an updated version of its 2003 derivatives definitions. The definitions contain basic terms used in the documentation of most credit derivatives transactions.

Strategists at Société Generale in Paris are touting strangle options on iTraxx Main to take advantage of high volatility on credit indices compared to credit spreads and equity volatility.

The Royal Bank of Scotland is one step closer to finalizing the sale of its equity derivatives and structured retail products business to BNP Paribas after reaching an agreement with the French bank.

Market participants have voiced concerns about the cross border implications of mandatory trade reporting under European Markets Infrastructure Regulation, which came into force on Feb. 12.