Derivs - Equity

Hassan Houari, head of equity derivatives structuring at Barclays in London, has left the firm and is set to join Deutsche Bank in a new role in London.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission have today finalized definitions of a swap, a securities-based swap, a securities-based agreement and a mixed swap.

The Royal Bank of Canada has hired Jefferson Shaw, an ex-director in equity derivative sales at Société Générale in New York, as a senior hedge fund flow salesman in New York.

Areski Iberrakene, the former global head of equity derivatives at Dresdner Kleinwort, is in the early stages of preparing to launch a hedge fund in London, called Areski Capital.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the International Organization of Securities Commission published a consultative paper today endorsing initial margin thresholds for non-centrally-cleared over-the-counter derivatives. In response to the paper, the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission has opened the public comment period for margin requirement for uncleared swaps.

Volumes in floored floater structured products in Switzerland have dropped further over recent months, with investors turning to alternative fixed income products, such as credit-linked notes.

Institutional investors are unwinding puts on Asian indices while at the same time overwriting single stocks. The unwinding is the largest risk-on shift seen by traders and structurers in Asian equity derivatives since July 2011.

Lorne Kerr, an ex-senior equity derivative salesman at Société Générale in New York, is set to join Wells Fargo as a director in listed options in a new role, also in New York.

Buysiders are looking at using options to supplement current delta one strategies to profit from expected outperformance of large caps stocks against small caps in the U.S.

Société Générale is looking to re-enter the Hong Kong exchange-traded fund market with listings this year that reference the China A-shares market. The move is being driven by the Chinese government’s decision to allow offshore trading of China A-shares in Hong Kong recently.

Instreet Investments, the Sydney-based investment firm, plans to issue a structured product that references a basket of three global hedge funds in August.

EFG Financial Products has launched an autocallable on the Eurostoxx 50 with a strike level of 50% of the initial fixing level.