Derivs - Credit

Investors should sell credit default swaps and bonds on Telecom Italia, which is currently hovering above junk status, according to strategists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Royal Bank of Scotland sees value in entering bearish steepeners on the sterling rates curve due to the decreased likelihood of quantitative easing by the Bank of England, leading to higher long-end rates.

The explicit rating link between a covered bond and its issuer is becoming increasingly tenuous.

The major global investment firms operating in South Korea are not planning to directly enter the country’s new synthetic exchange-traded fund market, but will instead offer hedging services to the Korean asset management and securities firms that are planning to offer funds.

GFI Group has applied to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to become a multi-asset swap execution facility under Dodd-Frank.

Société Générale has launched a new tool for credit portfolio managers that screens single-name credit default swaps by crossing signals from five different, existing models.

Aroen Ramnathsing, ex-managing director in interest rates derivatives trading at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Stamford, Conn., is set to join Nomura in a similar role in New York.

We may now be entering the summer lull, with the U.K. roasting in a rare heatwave and much of continental Europe preparing for holidays.

Institutional investors were sellers of receivers last week, implementing zero cost bullish ranges via receiver ladders.

Foreign institutions are concerned they will have to enter a foreign financial institution agreement with the U.S., or otherwise suffer a withholding tax on their derivatives transactions, if intergovernmental agreements are not concluded before the implementation date of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

The Australian Council of Financial Regulators is recommending the government enforce mandatory clearing for over-the-counter U.S. dollar, Japanese yen, euro and sterling-denominated interest rate swaps, a reversal from its past stance of a market driven solution to its G20 derivative reform commitments.

The Bank of Thailand has lifted its offshore investment quota for both institutional and non-institutional investors, making it easier to invest in exchange and over-the-counter derivatives and other instruments.