Derivs - People and Markets

In this round-up, Malaysia opens RMB qualified foreign institutional investor (RQFII) applications, Macau launches a RMB real time gross settlement (RTGS) payment system, China Construction Bank (CCB) will join the new London silver fix, and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported a strong start to RMB currency futures trading in 2016. Plus, a recap of GlobalRMB's top stories this week.

EU regulators granted a stay of execution to corporate treasury officials as they mandated a slower roll-out of new margin requirements on some of the most popular uncleared derivatives trades. But they stayed firm on a September 1 deadline many believe is untenable. With this temporary reprieve comes also the knowledge that treasuries’ recoursing to swaps strategies will soon become much more challenging.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney confirmed to the UK parliament on Tuesday what currency traders and analysts have been saying for weeks: worries about the EU referendum are sending prices higher for sterling options and raising the risk of a sharp fall in the pound.

Nasdaq this week agreed to buy International Securities Exchange (ISE) from Deutsche Boerse in a transaction valued at $1.1bn in cash and debt, a move that will give it a dominant position in the options market. It also adds another twist to the wider battle for hegemony in global derivatives exchange and clearing.

Far from a signal of returning strength in commodities, this week’s iron ore surge was due to freak activity in derivatives markets, an analyst has claimed, since daily futures volumes were equal to the annual output of big iron ore producers.

European Union regulators have published final draft rules for uncleared derivatives that make important concessions to lobbyists on margin requirements for some derivative contracts, but show no sign of budging on a very tight September 1 deadline for compliance by the biggest players in the market.

CME Group will be the first clearing house to clear interest rate swaptions, starting from next month, the firm has said.

Exchange operator Bats Global Markets and T3Index have launched an index measuring expected 30 day volatility in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), the most frequently traded security in the world.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney confirmed to the UK parliament on Tuesday what currency traders and analysts have been saying for weeks: worries about the EU referendum are causing higher prices for sterling options and raising the risk of a sharp fall in the pound.

OpenDoor Trading, a trading platform that aims to improve liquidity in off-the-run US treasuries and treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS), has appointed two senior fixed income officials to its board of advisors.

US economic data, despite some positive signals, is consistent with a continuing turn higher in market volatility, quantitative modellers have said.

Citi has hired two executives in equity derivatives from Goldman Sachs.