Derivs - FX

A number of hedge funds were buying up one-week risk reversals on the U.S. dollar/yen late last week at a time when the market was being dominated by overnight and two-day put options on the yen against the dollar.

The City of London, which accounts for 43% of the value of over-the-counter derivatives traded globally, is losing out on attracting financial services startups due to industry fears over the outcome of regulation aimed at derivatives and short selling.

Standard Chartered has hired five senior traders for its Middle Eastern and North African fixed income, currencies and commodities team.

Stephane Gaillard, head of commodities derivatives at Natixis in London, has left the firm and joined Nomura as a senior fx flow exotics trader in London.

The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius is looking to juice up its domestic corporations’ use of fx swaps and options to hedge exposures.

An Indian Ministry of Finance’s working group on foreign investment is recommending that foreign institutional investors be allowed to buy fx futures.

Crédit Agricole CIB has named Frédéric Lainé as head of the firm’s financial institutions group for international client coverage in Asia ex-Japan.

Corporate end-users are hedging against a rise in the U.S. dollar/Chinese yuan using bonus forwards in an otherwise quiet Asian fx market.

The planned retirement of Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz has thrown proposed changes to derivatives accounting into question, as the exposure draft only passed the board by a 3-2 vote, with Herz in favor.

The lowest barrier in a rash of digital one-touch euro/U.S. dollar trades was hit Tuesday—making the strategy a big payer for the hedge funds that executed them. Talk of the trades held center stage amid the traditional thin late August fx marts last week.

Citigroup has named Todd Elmer head of G10 fx strategy for the Asia Pacific region.

A coalition of industry groups, including the Association for Financial Markets in Europe and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, has expressed concerns about a single reporting regime for both transaction and position reporting on over-the-counter derivatives based on reporting through trade repositories.