Derivs - Credit

Culross Global Management is planning to launch two credit-focused funds of hedge funds in the next year—one liquid and the other illiquid.

Credit default swaps on XL Capital had been see-sawing from upfront points to running spreads over the past few days, but are now rallying at an accelerated pace. Dealers and brokers told Derivatives Week the name was being quoted on both conventions across the Street because on upfront points it was only in the low single digits.

The London Stock Exchange has ruled out clearing credit default swaps due to problems it foresees valuing them, Raffaele Jerusalmi, director of derivatives in Milan, told Derivatives Week.

Stephen Withers, executive director and head of trading for Asia at Banco Santander in Hong Kong, left the bank recently.

Starting tomorrow, all tranche trades on the CDX North American Investment Grade index series 12 will bear a fixed coupon of 100 basis points for the first time.

New York investment bank Lighthouse Financial has launched a derivatives operation focusing on equity and credit. It may expand into commodities and potentially currencies downstream.

Grupo Santander has hired Gerold Wiring, a director in flow credit distribution at Merrill Lynch in London, to head up the Spanish bank’s distribution of flow credit products into Germany.

Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International has hired a slew of former senior European Merrill Lynch staffers, led by John Caldwell and Trent Hagland, to build up its credit flow and corporate trading business in London.

Nowhere was the resurgence of risk appetite among bond investors more clearly visible this week than in the subordinated financial institutions market where two issuers priced well received and heavily oversubscribed deals.

New York alternative asset management firm Malbec Partners is considering launching a credit-focused fund and a long/short equity strategy later this year.

European financial names gapped out today on reports that the E.U. is to emulate U.S.-style stress tests of its banking system.

Most Impressive FIG issuer of Government Guaranteed Bonds