Derivs - Interest Rate

Over-the-counter derivatives volume in Singapore Exchange’s clearing house has been growing since November 2010.

Call options on the two-year German interest rate bond, called the Schatz, will provide an efficient hedge for a collapse of the euro due to its position as a proxy for the Deutsche mark, said Guy Mandy, interest rate derivatives strategist at Nomura in London.

The China Banking and Regulatory Commission is making marketing and selling financial products aimed at wealthy private individuals harder.

Against a backdrop of rising long end yields on the U.S. curve, even following the beginning of Operation Twist, the much anticipated Federal Open Market Committee minutes were released this week.

Extraterritoriality poses the risk interdealer brokers will have to register the same trading platform in different jurisdictions or develop different platforms for each, according to Scott Fitzpatrick, director of client relations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for GFI Group in London, at a breakfast briefing this morning.

David Moore has joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch as global head of structured rates and currencies in New York.

PLUS-DX Derivatives Exchange plans to roll out euro-denominated contracts based on FTSE interest rate swap indices shortly after those indices are rolled out in the next few weeks.

A proposed Dodd-Frank Act rule requiring firms to post initial margin on uncleared over-the-counter interest rate derivatives could result in USD1.4 trillion in new capital charges, according to Paul Rowady, senior analyst at research and advisory firm TABB Group.

Issuing new structured products in Europe would become more expensive and time consuming under rules proposed by the European Securities and Markets Authority.

Thursday saw Jean-Claude Trichet chair his last monetary policy meeting as the president of the European Central Bank, having held the post since Nov. 2003 and steering the ECB through the worst crisis to hit Europe since World War II.

NASDAQ OMX plans to switch to calculating margins for fixed income derivatives using a yield curve approach, which may reduce cross-margin amounts 25-50%.

Morgan Stanley last week sold USD121 million of medium term fixed-to-floating rate notes linked to three-month Libor with no cap on the upside--a high notional for a retail product.