Derivs - Equity

The Moscow Exchange has fired up a new volatility index and plans to debut futures on it early next year.

The Korea Exchange is looking to introduce so-called strategic equity-linked notes in an exhange-traded note format, as the country’s main financial regulator pushes the bourse and market participants to develop more custom indices in a bid to diversify underlyings used in South Korea structured products.

Investors globally are positioning for further upside in Japanese equity, buying three-to-six-month call spreads on the Nikkei with strikes between 115-and-125% in a bid to gain the most cost effective maximum exposure.

Lawyers expect the U.S. government to issue an extended delay to the implementation of the foreign accounting tax compliance act, due to the burdensome requirements for financial institutions in complying.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange has appointed John Deters, an ex-v.p. in the Financial Institutions Group in investment banking at Barclays, as its chief strategy officer and head of corporate initiatives in Chicago.

Julius Baer has launched multi-barrier reverse convertible structured products that offer a Christmas coupon in addition to an annual coupon, a festive, new addition in such structures, according to market officials in Europe.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange has developed a new index calculated using S&P 500 options that expire six-to-nine months in the future.

The Asia Pacific Regional Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions has written to Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for internal market and services in Brussels, warning that derivatives trading could dry up in Asia if central counterparties there are not granted a six-month extension to complete equivalence assessments that allow them to be recognized as qualifying CCPs under European Markets Infrastructure Regulation.

Standard Chartered has hired two Citigroup officials to head its newly created services team, which is focused on helping clients navigate the current challenges in the over-the-counter derivatives market.

The Royal Bank of Scotland has halted new offerings in Japan of fixed rate notes denominated in emerging market currencies and equity-only structured products.

The Ontario Securities Commission's final rules covering product determination, and trade repositories and derivatives data reporting are increasingly concerning market participants since no entity has been designated a trade repository in Canada yet.

U.K.-based hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management has hired James Chen, former managing director and head of Asia Pacific cash equities trading, program trading and delta one at Barclays, to build an equity business in the Asia Pacific.