Derivs - Credit

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has added a feature to its Trade Information Warehouse that shows a daily breakdown of its aggregated credit default swap contracts by their currency of denomination.

A group of buyside firms has drawn up a list of hindrances to central counterparty clearing in response to pressure from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to start clearing in advance of an expected regulatory mandate.

Markit’s new Asia Pacific sovereign credit default swaps index, the SovX Asia, traded between 108 basis points and 114bp today after it went live, and traders and analysts pointed to its surprising liquidity.

Robert McAdie, London-based head of European credit strategy at Barclays Capital, resigned last week.

Robert Pickel, executive vice chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, defended sovereign credit default swaps, calling them valuable hedging tools and saying they could increase liquidity in the underlying debt, during a testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets.

The U.S. Senate Financial Reform Bill may be some way from becoming law, but that hasn’t stopped attorneys from scouring every clause, looking for a loophole.

The People’s Bank of China is looking to issue a public notice giving the green light a trial test for banks in China to trade renminbi-denominated credit default swaps referencing onshore names.

Officials from Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan defended the use of sovereign credit default swaps by market makers and end-users.

The fight isn’t over on the U.S. Senate Financial Reform Bill, despite Republicans successfully blocking a vote on bringing the bill, which would bring sweeping restrictions to over-the-counter derivatives, to debate last night. Democrats will force two more votes today and tomorrow.

Five-year credit default swaps on Greece gapped out dramatically today to a record 601 basis points from a close of 485.7bp as it emerged that the level of the country’s debt was worse than first feared.

The New York state bill banning naked credit default swaps, where the user of the derivative has no economic interest in the underlying debt securities, and that would force the sellers of CDS to be licensed insurance carriers, reached the state assembly this morning.

The Senate Agriculture Committee voted 13-8 to send the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010, penned by Chairman Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), to the full senate.