Derivs - Equity

Todd Steinberg, head of equity and commodity derivatives for the Americas at BNP Paribas in New York, has left the bank.

BNP Paribas has joined with Boerne, Texas-based retail products distributor Advisors Asset Management to launch a six-year, principal-protected structured note at the end of the month on the bank’s Millennium Multi-Asset Dynamic Index.

Société Générale is considering a broader U.S. rollout of Lyxor Asset Management, its Paris-based hedge fund of funds replicator because of an uptick in reverse inquiries from investors with appetite for hedge fund exposure, yet concerns about liquidity.

UBS was the leading issuer of callable bull/bear contracts in Hong Kong in 2008, a year in which the market saw an explosion in sales at the expense of warrants.

Jim Strugger, an equity derivatives strategist at Société Générale in New York, is no longer with the firm.

Pierre-Yves Morlat, the former equity derivatives trading head at Société Générale, last week joined Credit Suisse in London.

Niaz Haider, senior v.p. and head of structured fund products for the Americas at HSBC, has warned variable annuities issuers to ensure their risk managers work closely with product structurers so they don’t give investors so much choice that hedging becomes too difficult.

Dmitry Green, head of risk management at BlueMountain Capital Management, told attendees at the Global Association of Risk Professionals’ 10th annual conference in New York yesterday that the firm uses 40 proprietary stress tests for determining its capital at risk from market shocks.

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture will hold a meeting tomorrow to consider the latest draft of the Derivatives Markets Transparency and Accountability Act of 2009, following two consecutive days of hearings on Capitol Hill.

Banks have been caught long exposure to dividend risk, because of hedges put in place to cover call options sold to clients on corporates that have now slashed dividends.

Crédit Agricole Cheuvreux, an equity broker and subsidiary of Calyon, will begin offering institutional investors access to the Saudi Arabian stock market, also known as Tadawul, via equity swaps.

Rachel Lord, head of global capital markets equity derivatives for Europe, Middle East, Africa at Morgan Stanley in London, resigned this week and is expected to resurface at Citigroup in May.