Derivs - Credit

London-based boutique advisory European Risk Capital has expanded its structured finance efforts with the addition of David Cain, former debt executive at Quayle Munro.

Anthony Best, global head of fixed income sales at JPMorgan in London, has left the firm following a reshuffle overseen by Jes Staley, chief executive of investment banking.

BNP Paribas has appointed Patrik Sandin as head of fixed income distribution and origination for Asia ex-Japan, a new role for the firm. He will be based in Hong Kong and is expected to start on April 1.

Matthew Zola, the former global head of structured credit at Morgan Stanley in New York, has joined UBS as a managing director and head of cross divisional structuring in Stamford, Conn.

The cost of insuring Boston Scientific Corp. debt against default widened 20 basis points, or nearly 13%, from last night’s close after the medical device maker admitted it had neglected to seek regulatory approval for a change in its manufacturing process.

Asia credit default swap indices have been narrowing as investors are seeking more protection for high-yield positions. Markit’s iTraxx Asia ex-Japan High Yield index tightened 5 basis points to 365bp overnight and the iTraxx Australia tightened 5bp to 80bp in the last week.

A group of sellside and buyside institutions has formed the Swaps and Derivatives Markets Association to push for equal access to swaps clearing among dealers of all sizes.

Investment consultancy Mercer is talking to pension fund trustees it advises about bringing derivatives into their investment portfolios.

Purported linkage between Greece’s fiscal woes and naked credit default swaps this week dealt a fresh blow to the G14 derivatives dealers, who had seemingly gained some ground after committing to regulators to bring more transparency to the CDS market.

Citigroup is recommending investors take a view on fx spot movements and credit spreads while volatility and correlation between the asset classes is still relatively high by historical standards.

European Union representatives will propose to G20 states in June to agree to ban naked credit default swaps trading on government-backed bonds, according to Nikolaos Chountis, a member of the European Parliament for Greece.

Structured products boutique Luxembourg Financial Group and Swedbank recently launched a fund that uses short- and long-term options to capture growth from a range of underlyings while employing a mechanism to help mitigate losses in case the fund performs badly.