Derivs - Equity

The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) on Friday said that the leverage ratio should recognise the exposure-reducing nature of initial margin, becoming the latest body to call for change on the issue.

The United States’ top derivatives regulator, Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair Christopher Giancarlo, this week apologised for his organisation’s past regulatory overreach in policing foreign derivatives markets and called for a “reset” in relations with the European Union. The Europeans would be wise to take him up on his offer.

Eurex, the derivatives exchange belonging to Deutsche Börse, reported a 56% increase in traded equity derivatives contracts in August 2018 compared to the same period last year.

Deutsche Börse, the parent company of derivatives exchange Eurex, is merging the sales and product design departments for fixed income and equity index derivatives at Eurex.

SIX, an exchange company in Switzerland, is angling to take full advantage of the advent of distributed ledger technology (DLT). With its new digital asset platform, the company hopes to profit from easier securities settlement and a new method of raising capital that involves issuing cryptocurrency.

The US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry has confirmed the nominations of Dawn DeBerry Stump and Dan Michael Berkovitz to serve as commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

German exchange group Deutsche Börse has bought a minority stake in fintech company HQLAx and says that it is “likely to acquire further shareholdings” at the end of the year.

Equity strategists at a bulge bracket bank are foreseeing volatility in Bayer’s share price around the time its €4bn mandatorily convertible bond matures next year, particularly because of its legal problems over a Monsanto weedkiller, and are pitching clients a strategy to profit from this, writes Costas Mourselas.

Roland Schwinn, the Asia head of derivatives bourse Eurex, will leave the company on August 31 to join Sygnum, a startup looking to offer custody for digital assets, among other services.

Barclays said on Tuesday that it had hired Justin Brickwood from Goldman Sachs, to take on the newly created role of ‘head of markets innnovation’.

Electronic trading platform provider Tradeweb is entering the US equity options market with a request-for-quote protocol that aims to capture growing investor taste for the product.

The cost of buying credit default swaps on Turkish five year government debt has stopped its upward trajectory and eased lower, even as the country’s standoff with the US continues.