Derivs - Credit

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s ‘bumblebee’ speech at the end of July spurred calm in risk-sensitive assets bringing back a tradition of peace in the financial markets in August.

The European Securities and Markets Authority is in the final stage of finalizing its draft regulatory technical standards for the European Market Infrastructure Regulation and will approve them at a board meeting next week, according to Rodrigo Buenaventura, head of markets division at ESMA.

MarkitSERV has seen clients clear USD3.5 trillion notional of over-the-counter derivatives since the electronic trade processing platform started to connect clients and clearinghouses in Dec. 2010.

The rally in credit default swaps market, driven by stimulus package announcement from the European Central Bank and the Federal Reserve has sent many core names CDS to their lowest levels for a year.

Instead of getting long on the CDX high yield index, Barclays is advising bullish market participants to buy the high beta index constituents and pair them with a short index position.

Barclays Bank Ireland has named Benette van Dyk as a director of structured trade and sales finance. Van Dyk previously headed trade finance at The Standard Bank of South Africa and The FirstRand Group South Africa.

Canada’s Scotiabank is looking to grow its prime brokerage operations to attract hedge fund business, with plans to use a generic off-the-shelf technology platform to quickly enter the field.

Moscow-based VTB Capital has launched the VTB Capital Russia & CIS Equity Fund and the VTB Capital Russia & CIS Fixed Income Fund.

Deutsche Bank is planning to reduce the size of its investment-banking business in Dubai by 25%, with a number of directors expected to leave.

Observers are viewing Lyxor’s launch last week of eight physical exchange-traded funds as a sign the industry may be beginning to shift away from synthetics. Lyxor, a synthetic ETF specialist, recorded USD506 million in outflows in the first eight months of 2012.

Small and medium-size U.k. businesses that were found to be victims of banks mis-selling derivatives to them appear to be snubbing an agreement hammered out by the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority to compensate them and are considering launching legal actions against the banks.

Deutsche Bank has named the executive committees of its EUR900 billion Asset & Wealth Management, as the bank is overhauling its structure.