Derivs - Equity

The US Department of Labor’s new conflict of interest regulations will change the way structured products are packaged and sold to retail retirement accounts, law firm Morrison & Foerster has warned. And although implementation is nearly a year away, the scope and complexity of likely programme changes require immediate attention from both manufacturers and distributors of structured products.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation is teaming up with Korea Exchange (KRX) to build a trade repository solution in Korea.

The London Stock Exchange is set to begin offering weekly options that will be based on the FTSE 100 stock index, in what it said is a first-of-its-kind launch in the UK listed derivatives market.

In this round-up, Hong Kong RMB deposits shrank further in March, southbound usage of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect picked up, China's foreign exchange regulator granted four new RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) quotas in April, and Singapore Exchange launched trading of derivatives under the new MSCI China Free Index. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

In a hearing held last week, the US House Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit heard testimony about the effects of Dodd-Frank regulations on end-users of derivatives.

The US state of Delaware is embarking on a blockchain and smart contract technology programme in the hope that this will lower transaction costs, speed up and automate manual processes, and reduce fraud.

UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti highlighted the ‘paralyzing volatility’ in the market on Tuesday, as the bank announced a 64% year on year drop in net profit in the first quarter of 2016.

Natixis has announced that Selim Mehrez will replace Alain Gallois as global head of fixed income, alongside a string of other appointments in its corporate and investment banking business.

David Escoffier, deputy head of global markets at Société Générale CIB and the former chief executive of Newedge, has left the French bank after 17 years following the promotion of one of his colleagues to run global markets.

The fervour of expectation in the run up to this week’s US Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan meetings ended in widespread pain for foreign exchange, equity and derivative market participants.

Saudi Arabia on Monday announced its plans to diversify away from oil production through a plan it called "Vision 2030". But the oil rich nation won't find it easy to execute in the plan, particularly when it comes to attracting skilled foreigners to fuel its goals.

Saudi Arabia’s plans for economic and social reform will involve developing its financial markets, including the use of derivatives.