Derivs - Equity

Most Asian end-users are ill-prepared for the incoming U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s over-the-counter derivatives market reforms, with only a small percentage ready to comply with swap dealer, trade reporting and external business conduct standards.

Investment by the industry in infrastructure has led to a further decrease in outstanding confirmations, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s 2013 Operations Benchmarking Survey.

Société Générale is pitching a strangle versus strangle strategy on the Eurostoxx 50 to take advantage of the range-bound nature of the index.

Regulatory proposals covering over-the-counter derivatives will bring significant costs to end users, while rules surrounding reporting requirements and collateral remain unclear and need further clarification, according to Joel Kim, head of fixed income, Asia Pacific, at BlackRock.

Standard Chartered has hired Alvaro Patron, the ex-Asia head of corporate derivatives structuring and consultative sales at Citigroup, as head of global corporate sales, financial markets in Singapore.

Inconsistent and conflicting final rules for over-the-counter derivatives between the U.S. and Europe cannot be ruled out, according to Ng Nam Sin, assistant managing director in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s development group.

Munich-based Assenagon Asset Management has launched the Assenagon Substanz Europa fund, a mutual fund that invests in high dividend European stocks while using a partial hedging strategy through options in order to generate consistent returns.

Annual turnover in Asia’s over-the-counter derivatives markets grew 2.2% a year between 2008 and 2012, with annual turnover reaching USD186 trillion last year, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

A lack of progress and co-ordination in developing cross-border rules is fragmenting the over-the-counter derivatives markets, and will in turn dampen liquidity, investment and growth, according to a letter from numerous Finance Ministers addressed to the U.S. Treasury and other U.S. regulators.

Standard Chartered has hired Petter Sternby, the ex-head of the financial institutions group Asia ex-Japan at Nomura in Hong Kong, as head of Southeast Asia financial institutions strategic coverage in Singapore.

Credit Suisse has launched best-of bonus structured certificates on a basket of three underlying stocks, a novel offering according to investors.

Shaun Moran, managing director and head of trading and execution services at JPMorgan in Tokyo, left the firm this week.