Derivs - Credit

The European Commission has instructed the European Securities and Markets Authority to produce draft regulatory standards on the cross-border application of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation by Sept. 25, 2013.

Mainland Chinese securities firms are not using the recently released Securities Association of China master agreement, opting instead to use the National Association of Financial Market Institutional Investors contract due to regulatory uncertainty, according to officials.

John McCormick, ceo of markets and international banking, Asia Pacific, at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong, has left the firm.

Credit Suisse is recommending a euro payer calendar spread based on the flatness of the volatility surface and the view that the risk of a rates sell-off is skewed toward later in the year.

Voting is now open for the Global Derivatives Survey, a comprehensive customer ranking of derivatives sellsiders in the credit, equity, fx, interest rate and structured products markets. The survey, from Derivatives Intelligence & Derivatives Week, will poll institutional and retail investors from the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific across multiple asset classes.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, pursuant to the Dodd Frank Act, has implemented rules which require that all swap counterparties report and keep record of certain swap data.

Credit valuation adjustment desks, real money investors and macro investors have been buying payer options and payer spreads as part of a hedging strategy on the iTraxx Main and iTraxx Senior Financials. The options expire in June and July.

Portugal captures fewer headlines than its Iberian neighbor Spain, but it was the main focus of the sovereign CDS market in what was a quiet week.

To express the view that euro swap rates and volatility will stay low, the Royal Bank of Scotland is recommending selling 1y2y at-the-money straddles.

Credit default swap contracts with foreign counterparties dropped to USD18.963 trillion at the end of last year, from USD21.572 trillion in H1 2012, according to the Bank of International Settlements.

Investors anticipating further compression in credit default swaps on European financial names should sell senior UniCredit CDS and buy protection on Santander CDS, according to Société Générale.

GFI Group has acquired assets from equity and credit interdealer broker Phoenix Partners Group, which includes a team of 32 brokers based in London and New York.