Derivs - Credit

The recent widening of the iTraxx Main has opened up the opportunity to take a bullish position on the index by selling a risk reversal.

UBS is marketing unique collateralized floating rate notes linked to three-month USD Libor and the credit risk of the Swiss Confederation—the first of their kind to be offered publically in Switzerland.

The Hong Kong Exchange has presented its plans for after hours futures trading to the Legislative Council’s Panel on Financial Affairs.

A new synthetic commercial mortgage-backed securities index referencing 25 conduit offerings from 2012 began trading on Friday.

Initial margin requirements in proposals from the Securities and Exchange Commission would curtail the use of uncleared swaps for hedging and challenge the resilience of the financial system.

Slovenia is not one of the more popular names in the sovereign credit default swap universe, but it has been seeing some activity in recent weeks due to political instability.

Hedge funds and asset managers have been using credit options, such as payer spreads, to participate in a market correction in the iTraxx Main and iTraxx Senior Financials.

The European Securities & Markets Authority published ‘EMIR: Frequently Asked Questions’ to “provide clarity” in relation to the European Market Infrastructure Regulation. This FAQ article covers the position prior to scrutiny of the EMIR Technical Standards by the European Parliament and Council of the E.U.”

Some dealers have started booking in London some derivatives that would normally have been booked in Hong Kong to avoid facing compliance problems under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.

The Shanghai Clearing House is ready to launch its central clearing counterparty for over-the-counter derivatives, with clearing of onshore yuan-denominated interest rate swaps to start soon.

Scott Stickler, global head of UBS’ hedge fund prime brokerage service in New York, has left the firm.

Chee Chen Poh, a managing director in fixed income trading at BNP Paribas in Singapore, left the firm last week.