Derivs - Credit

Investors have been shorting the New Zealand dollar against the U.S. dollar via forwards over recent days as a hedge against flatteners on the New Zealand rates curve. This strategy has received increased interest since talk of tapering the U.S. bond buying program began and some emerging market funds were deploying the strategy prior to the Kiwi spurt. Now investors are looking at other overvalued G10 currencies.

Players should sell subordinated credit default swaps on the Royal Bank of Scotland to position for the potential restructuring into a ‘bad’ bank to hold its toxic loans, and a remaining ‘good’ bank, according to strategists at Société Générale.

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.

Goldman Sachs’ net revenues in equities, excluding reinsurance, jumped 23% year-on-year, driven by higher net revenues in derivatives and cash, according to its Q2 2013 earnings.

Documentation will likely be in place for firms trading contracts using the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s amended credit derivative definitions from March 20, 2014.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued late Monday night an update to its latest cross border swap exemptive order, giving a reprieve to foreign branches of U.S. swap dealers located in jurisdictions, such as Singapore, that were not covered in the original order issued late last Friday.

Ray Joseph, cio and executive director at the Office of the Special Trustee at the U.S. Department of Interior for the state of New Jersey, has joined Barclays’ as a director in investor solutions, in New York.

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

Institutional investors are showing interest in a novel interest rate risk premium strategy from Société Générale following the selloff in G10 rates in May and June, according to strategists at the firm.

Australian entities registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission as swap dealers will need to report over-the-counter derivative trade information for certain asset classes to licensed Australian repositories from Oct. 1 this year.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has included collective investment vehicles, including hedge funds and commodity pools, in its definition of what it considers a U.S. person in its interpretative guidance regarding the cross-border application of the swaps provisions of Title VII of Dodd-Frank.

Investors should sell CDX IG against the iTraxx Main as U.S. growth prospects are set to improve through the second half of 2013 against Europe, which is still showing signs of long-term volatility.