Derivs - Credit

The Asia Pacific Regional Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions has written to Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for internal market and services in Brussels, warning that derivatives trading could dry up in Asia if central counterparties there are not granted a six-month extension to complete equivalence assessments that allow them to be recognized as qualifying CCPs under European Markets Infrastructure Regulation.

The European Commission has published a legislative proposal for a regulation on financial benchmarks. The proposed Regulation aims to address concerns about the integrity and accuracy of benchmarks by regulating administrators of benchmarks, contributors to benchmarks and benchmark users. The Regulation will also prohibit the use in the E.U. of unauthorised benchmarks, including benchmarks prepared by unregistered non-E.U. administrators from non-equivalent jurisdictions.

Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Europe and Asia, but the holiday tends to have a calming effect on financial markets beyond North America.

Amundi Asset Management is not trading subordinated credit default swaps until deliverability of subordinated bonds in a credit event is clarified, Hervé Boiral, head of European credit in Paris, told DW.

Standard Chartered has hired two Citigroup officials to head its newly created services team, which is focused on helping clients navigate the current challenges in the over-the-counter derivatives market.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has halted new offerings in Japan of fixed rate notes denominated in emerging market currencies and equity-only structured products.

The Ontario Securities Commission's final rules covering product determination, and trade repositories and derivatives data reporting are increasingly concerning market participants since no entity has been designated a trade repository in Canada yet.

Hedge funds, real money players and risk management desks at banks are buying payer swaptions with March expiries to hedge against widening spreads in 2014.

Hong Kong’s over-the-counter derivatives clearinghouse has cleared a U.S. dollar, renminbi non-deliverable forward and a Hong Kong dollar interest rate swap after beginning clearing operations on Monday.

MarkitSERV, the electronic trade processing service for over-the-counter derivatives, now connects customers to OTC Clearing Hong Kong Ltd, the derivatives clearing services from the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited.

Russell Scott, an ex-emerging market broker at Creditex in London, has joined BNP Paribas as an emerging market credit trader, also in London.

The last year has seen regulations mandating reporting of derivatives trades being gradually implemented in a number of key jurisdictions around the world. As a result, it has been and continues to be a busy time for regulators, service providers and market participants alike.