Derivs - Credit

Talk of the European Central Bank extending its bond buying programme to banks sent the iTraxx Europe Senior Financials credit default swap basket back within 20bp of the Main index on Monday and to its tightest levels since the UK referendum vote on EU membership at the end of June.

The Financial Stability Board has singled out removing barriers to over-the-counter derivatives reporting as a priority for G20 leaders ahead of their summit in Hangzhou this weekend.

Symbiont, a startup technology firm specialising in smart contracts and distributed ledgers for financial markets, has named a former Morgan Stanley senior banker as president and chairman of its board of directors.

HSBC Private Bank in the US has chosen a former EMEA DCM head at the group to lead its investment services and product solutions.

Abundant oil reserves transform a country’s economy. The results are not always positive — some sovereigns suffer from the “Dutch Disease”, which inhibits exports of non-oil goods through an appreciation in the real exchange rate. But overall natural resources, in particular oil and gas, prove to be a boon for the lucky country’s finances.

Blockchain initiatives in financial markets came to the fore this week, with a group of banks teaming up to apply the technology to making payments and settling transactions, while a survey of 25 financial exchanges found that most of them are testing distributed ledger technology.

UBS and three other banks are working together to apply blockchain technology to making payments and settling transactions in financial markets.

Europe’s faltering on margin rules for uncleared swaps this year has, for some market participants, proved that the trans-Atlantic regulatory rollout has reached breaking point – a reckoning that, perversely, could buy the market some relief in the form of a slowdown in the regulatory pace.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers were among those wading in with suggestions this week as regulators sought consultation on how best to install a framework to resolve failing central counterparties (CCPs).

The Bank of England’s revamped quantitative easing programme hit an early snag last week when the central bank failed to source enough Gilts on just the second day of purchases.

Numerix, a provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, has signed up Siam Commercial Bank as its first client in Thailand for a credit valuation adjustment (CVA) solution.

Far from seeing Tullett Prebon’s voice-hybrid push as a last stand of the dinosaurs against robot supremacy, those firms going all-in on electronic trading would do well to re-examine their own longevity.