Derivs - Interest Rate

Dealers are trashing trade union claims they are making big bucks off munis entering floating-to-fixed interest rate swaps.

Ian Donaldson, managing director and fixed income salesman for Goldman Sachs, has left the firm.

Anthony Best, global head of fixed income sales at JPMorgan in London, has left the firm following a reshuffle overseen by Jes Staley, chief executive of investment banking.

A group of sellside and buyside institutions has formed the Swaps and Derivatives Markets Association to push for equal access to swaps clearing among dealers of all sizes.

Goldman Sachs is continuing to lose key staff from its Asia fixed income business.

Markit will tomorrow launch a synthetic total return swap index in North America referencing the interest-only component of 30-year fixed-rate, un-securitized residential mortgages.

Structured products boutique Luxembourg Financial Group and Swedbank recently launched a fund that uses short- and long-term options to capture growth from a range of underlyings while employing a mechanism to help mitigate losses in case the fund performs badly.

Patrick Pearson, head of financial markets infrastructure within the European Commission's internal market division in Brussels, told Derivatives Week in an exclusive interview with London reporter Rob McGlinchey that the Commission is collecting data from dealers and end-users with a view to drawing up a benchmark of bid/ask spreads. The aim is to help shave users' hedging costs and determine how expensive it would be on top for users to clear their trades.

Thomas Williams, an exotics rates trader formerly with Commerzbank in London, has joined Jefferies International in a newly created role.

David Arnold, Asia head of fixed income institutional sales for BNP Paribas, left the firm last week.

Amias Berman & Co., the fixed income advisory, origination and brokerage, is close to scoring a license from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that will allow it to do business with U.S clients using an onshore broker’s license.

Bank of America has hired Joseph Kraft to head up the firm’s Japanese fx sales and trading business in Tokyo.