Derivs - Credit

Hector Cortes, a managing director in fixed income institutional sales at Nomura, has left the firm within the last few weeks.

The European Securities and Markets Authority along with national regulators should be given the appropriate resources and powers to enforce the requirements outlined in the updated Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, according to Jean-Pierre Jouyet, chairman of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.

New York hedge fund Brigade Capital Management, which is headed by Donald Ellis Morgan, has brought on Thadeus Strobach, a former managing director of credit strategy who cover credit derivatives at the Royal Bank of Scotland in New York.

Spreads on credit-default swaps for Western European nations tightened after a series of triggers, most notably the coordinated rate cut on U.S. dollar swaps on Nov. 30, bringing the spreads, as of December 1, down to the tightest levels since early November.

Downgraded banks acting as interest rate swap counterparties to collateralized debt obligation and collateralized loan obligation issuers are in danger of losing extensive amounts of capital inflow.

The sovereign credit market has been racked by volatility in 2011 and this week was no different.

Societe Generale is re-arranging responsibilities for its credit derivatives traders in the U.S., after the Paris-based firm has let go at least three members of the credit trading desk this week.

The approximately GBP6 billion Rolls-Royce Pension Fund has entered a longevity swap with Deutsche Bank to cover GBP3 billion of the fund’s long-term liabilities.

Spreads on credit-default swaps for Western European nations have tightened after Germany and France signaled that they would be able to put together a closer fiscal union of the 27 member states without modifying European Union treaties.

More tender offers on synthetic commercial mortgage-backed securitizations could be in the cards after HSBC Bank launched a buy-back offer for its Nemus 2006-1 U.K. synthetic CMBS deal.

Credit-default spreads widened 2.7% globally across sovereigns and sectors last week on investor fears of European creditworthiness, with the probability of default for Europe reaching the same levels as emerging markets.

Firms in Hong Kong are concerned they may have to comply with global and local regulations which will require special identity numbers to report transactions to the country’s imminent trade repository.