Derivs - Equity

The Securities and Exchange Commission has voted to propose new rules covering record keeping, reporting and notification requirements for security-based swap dealers and major security-based swap participants.

The Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products directive (PRIIPs), which was approved by the European Parliament on Tuesday evening, has been welcomed by the European structured products industry.

Leonteq has launched tracker certificates on the Zurich Insurance Group December 2017 dividend future, a novel offering according to European structurers.

Ali Salahuddin, head of global-equity linked products at the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto, has left the firm. Ahmed Kachenoura, managing director, head of AMRS trading and head of the US platform, global equity linked products in New York, will assume Salahuddin’s responsibilities. Kachenoura will remain in New York as head of global equity-linked products.

Institutional investors have been active in short-dated upside call flow on the Japan Exchange-Nikkei 400 index, a new trend according to traders. The trades, which had an average notional of around $1 million, follow an announcement from Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund that it will include the new index in its benchmarks.

The Canadian Securities Administrators plans to extend the date for the implementation of over-the-counter derivatives trade reporting requirements until October 31 for clearing agencies and dealers, and until June 30, 2015 for all other OTC derivatives market participants.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange reported that first day trading volume for its short-term volatility index options totaled an estimated 3,134. According to traders, the success of the new options with weekly expirations stems from the fact that the shorter time horizon of the VXST enables the options to be even more responsive to market moves than the longer-dated VIX.

James Chen, former managing director and head of Asia Pacific cash equities trading, program trading and delta one at Barclays, has joined BlueCrest Capital Management in Hong Kong.

Exotic equity traders at large financial firms have been selling long-dated Nikkei volatility via December 2016, 2017 and 2018 put options with strikes at around 90% of spot. Traders, however, have been hard pressed to find investors.

Société Générale is to launch structured certificates on the Solactive European Buyback Index, the first offering of its kind. The index was launched last month and has had an annual return of 24.13% from November 2008—March 2014.

The estimated amount of collateral in circulation in the non-cleared over-the-counter derivatives market decreased 14% from $3.7 trillion at the end of 2012 to approximately $3.17 trillion by December 31, 2013, according to a margin survey conducted by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

Four new members have been elected to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s board of directors, including senior staffers from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.