Derivs - Credit

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s determinations committee was due to meet on Thursday evening to decide whether credit default swaps referencing Grohe, the German bathroom fittings maker, had been triggered by the insolvency of a subsidiary.

Credit trading desks at banks have been swept by a tornado of job moves, as financial institutions specialists leave or jump to rival firms in a scramble to survive in a shrinking market.

Sellside and buyside traders alike have lauded initiatives to save credit default swap liquidity, following a collapse of volumes and an exodus of market makers from banks in London.

The seemingly never-ending saga around Greece’s EU status continues to drive macro sentiment, but credit investors have also had sector specific issues to digest.

Traders have asked the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s determinations committee to decide whether a credit event has occurred with respect to Grohe Group, the German maker of bathroom fittings.

BNP Paribas is set to lose two experienced traders from its flow credit business in London.

A move to halve the number of rolls for single name credit default swaps is a short term act of necessity. But the CDS market needs much more reform.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation into how well the European Market Infrastructure Regulation has been implemented.

Interest rate swap and credit default swap notionals are falling compared with last year, despite a rise in the number of trades executed, according to the latest data from the International Swap and Derivatives Association (ISDA).

A senior financial credits trader at JP Morgan in London is set to leave his post at the bank, say market sources.

Risk management is, by nature, evolutionary, but the 2008 financial crisis marked an inflection point that changed the paradigm for the industry. It ushered in an era of greater regulatory scrutiny, with risk management emerging as a leading priority for financial firms and policy makers, who pledged to establish new rules that would enhance market stability and mitigate the likelihood of another financial meltdown.

Calls from real money investors for market makers to scrap two of the four quarterly rolls of single name credit default swaps each year are gaining traction, say traders — and could take effect as soon as next month.