Derivs - People and Markets

Abengoa avoided triggering a bankruptcy credit event on Tuesday by only a single word change in legal documentation after ISDA spent more than a week boggling over Spanish laws and its own credit derivative definitions. But as GlobalCapital went to press, the firm looked to be on the brink of triggering a failure to pay credit event instead, having acknowledged it had missed commercial paper repayments. Dan Alderson reports.

The movement of one word – 10 places to the left – in ISDA’s credit derivative definitions was the determining factor in the trade body deciding that Abengoa had not triggered a bankruptcy credit event for most of its credit default swaps.

The European Union’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) got 10 of the 11 countries discussing a financial transaction tax to agree on elements of the levy on Tuesday, and are intent on continuing work on the rule in 2016.

Fidessa, the UK based financial software and data company, has appointed a former LIFFE sales head to its Europe, Middle East and Africa derivatives business.

European regulators have ditched a long-running investigation of 13 major banks on charges of collusion in the credit default swap market, citing insufficient evidence.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange plans to launch options on the FTSE 100 and FTSE China 50 indices before the end of the year.

LME Clear, the clearing house for the London Metal Exchange, has launched a trade compression service and given members the ability to post metals warrants as collateral for the first time.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has proposed rules to increase oversight and risk controls for high speed electronic trading — particularly the use of algorithms — in a bid to limit disruptions in the futures market.

CLS Group, the foreign exchange settlement firm, has teamed up with financial information services provider Markit to launch an FX settlement service for cross currency swaps.

Royal Bank of Scotland has hired a well known high yield specialist to head corporate and event driven credit trading.

BGC Partners has appointed a new senior managing director and general manager for its London brokerage.

Barclays has named Mike Bagguley, its former head of macro, as the chief operating officer of its investment bank.