Derivs - Interest Rate

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has finalized rules to implement a legally segregated, operationally commingled clearing model in the cleared swaps market.

The Investment Company Institute is suggesting some modifications to a proposed Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service rule that would ease tax burdens for funds investing in derivatives.

Deutsche Asset Management is planning to launch an open-ended debt fund in Mumbai that can use fixed income derivatives, such as interest rate swaps and forward rate agreements, to hedge interest rate risk.

Clearing of over-the-counter interest rate swaps via Singapore Exchange’s central clearing counterparty DerivativesClear plunged 68% to SGD1.26 billion (USD972 million) in December from SGD4.5 billion (USD3.5 billion) in November, the lowest volumes seen since the clearinghouse started last June.

A U.S. bank was in the market snapping up USD500 million in calls on the Australian dollar/U.S. dollar cross Tuesday and Wednesday.

Christiane Mandell, head of institutional sales across all asset classes and products for the Americas at Standard Chartered in New York, has left the firm.

Indian banks using over-the-counter derivatives will be hit with a credit value adjustment risk capital charge on top of the capital charge for counterparty default risk, under draft guidelines to implement draft Basel III proposals in the country.

Recent market volatility has emphasised the importance of well functioning markets, particularly in the wholesale over-the-counter and derivative markets, as increased proportions of execution have been arranged by voice of late.

Regulators should assess the appropriateness of derivative products before requiring them to be executed on electronic platforms, according to Robert Pickel, executive vice chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association in New York.

The emergence of meta-platforms allowing investors to trade investment products from multiple issuers online is seen as the biggest threat to single dealer dominance of the structured product market in Europe.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association has published draft taxonomies for regulatory reporting on over-the-counter derivatives.

European end users are increasingly using Chinese offshore renminbi fx products for hedging and investment purposes, with more growth expected next year.