Derivs - Credit

David Ezra, a senior credit salesman formerly with Goldman Sachs who joined London brokerage Mint Partners last month (DW, 3/11), has left and is reportedly set to join Credit Suisse in a new role.

Five-year credit default swaps on European airlines gapped out this morning on news that restrictions related to volcanic ash from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano will be extended.

Hotly anticipated over-the-counter derivatives legislation from Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) has just been released, and judging by the commercial end-user exemption to an otherwise mandatory clearing requirement, it looks as if end-user lobbyists had an impact in the final hours before its release.

Five-year credit default swap spreads on major investment banks gapped out dramatically today after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Goldman Sachs of securities fraud.

The newly formed Swaps and Derivatives Markets Association, which is lobbying for equal access to central counterparty clearing platforms where bulge-bracket dealers have a virtual monopoly, were in Washington, D.C., this week making their case to legislators.

Derivatives officials say the idea being floated in some circles of spinning off swaps desks isn’t feasible and jars with other expected provisions of the forthcoming Senate Agriculture Committee bill.

The Senate Agriculture Committee’s proposals for regulating the over-the-counter derivatives market, which Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said would be released today, will now come out Friday at the earliest because the legislative language is not yet finished, according to a Committee spokeswoman.

Stakeholders in a clearinghouse operating in Japan will require direct approval from the Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama if they wish to seek ownership of more than 20%, under proposals submitted by the Japanese Financial Services Authority.

Credit analysts at Crédit Agricole CIB believe that dividing Markit’s newly-launched Asia Pacific sovereign credit default swaps index into two, for developed and developing nations, would offer a cleaner hedging tool for investors.

Gerald Corrigan, chairman of Goldman Sachs, told European politicians at a public hearing this afternoon that the firm would enter into currency swaps with Greece again, despite recent political furor over the transactions.

U.S. Senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said earlier today that the final sticking points in an agreement on over-the-counter derivatives reform between himself and Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) center on end-user exemptions from clearing and the amount of OTC trades that should go on exchange

Five-year credit default swaps on Greece pulled in dramatically this morning following the announcement of a lifeline worth EUR45 billion (USD61 billion) yesterday.