Derivs - Credit

Greece’s debt negotiations returned as a driver of European credit index trading this week, but after a rocky start the country’s own bonds froze in concert with the continuing stalemate around debt talks.

BNP Paribas looks set to lose its high yield credit trading head in London.

The technical standards for Europe’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive have been pushed back, in the hope of achieving better regulation when it finally hits the statute book. But the new deadline will be painful for regulated firms.

Société Générale is merging its high yield and hedge fund sales businesses, with the two team heads likely to leave their posts.

A weekend has passed since the UK’s general election, allowing time for investors to digest last Thursday’s surprising result. The victory confounded opinion polls, which had suggested another hung parliament. This uncertainty leading up to the election resulted in an increased level of volatility in the markets.

An experienced sterling credit trader has left BNP Paribas and is heading to Credit Suisse to help build out a similar desk there, say market sources.

Traders say they are optimistic that approaching Greece debt talks and the iTraxx index May options expiring next week will help return direction to the credit market, which has been locked in the thrall of the Bund blowout since the end of April.

A senior emerging markets credit trader is set to leave UBS to oversee a global EM portfolio for Brevan Howard, say market sources.

Interest rate derivative trade counts year-to-date reported to swap data repositories were up compared to the same period in 2014, but this was offset by an equal and opposite percentage decline in notional, according to the most recent data from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

It wasn’t so long ago — less than three weeks, in fact — that the big story in European financial markets was very low, or even negative, government bond yields. Germany’s 10 year Bunds were trading below 0.05% in mid-April, while sovereign bonds in the eurozone’s periphery were quoted at lower yields than US Treasuries.

Interest rate derivative trade counts reported to swap data repositories last week increased by 27%, marking the second week in a row of expansion versus the same week in 2014, according to data from the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

Time Warner Cable credit spreads could increase further as M&A speculation grows following a Department of Justice’s antitrust ruling against rival Comcast's merger plans for the company on April 24.